Shell expects to have booked significantly higher oil and LNG trading results in the second quarter of the year as the Iran war drove extreme volatility in energy commodity markets.
Shell expects its trading and optimization result in the integrated gas division to be significantly higher in the second quarter than in the first quarter, the UK-based supermajor said in an update note on Tuesday, ahead of reporting detailed Q2 figures on July 30.
The trading and optimization results in the chemicals and products division and in the marketing division are expected to be “in line with Q1’26”, said Shell, which had already posted excessive oil trading profits for the first quarter of the year.
In early May, Shell reported consensus-beating earnings for the first quarter as the war in Iran drove an oil price surge and boosted trading profits at the UK-based supermajor.
The company attributed the earnings bump to higher realized liquids prices and significantly higher trading amid unprecedented market volatility in the latter part of the quarter.
Shell and the other European majors, BP and TotalEnergies, all booked higher-than-expected profits for the first quarter, on the back of very strong trading results.
None of these energy giants report separately and in detail how much they make from trading, but analysts are estimating that the profits are in the region of billions of U.S. dollars per quarter in times of extreme market volatility.
All supermajors are set to report bumper profits for the second quarter later this month, driven by the surge in oil and gas prices and strong trading results.
Big Oil, however, will be careful not to boast too much about the results amid pressure from the U.S. Administration, which is investigating the market for price-gouging and demands lower gasoline prices “immediately”.
