Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDS-A, RDSA.L, RDSB.L, RDS-B) updated shareholders on progress against its strategic plan to generate profitable growth. The company's strategic aim remains to drive forward with its investment programme, to deliver sustainable growth and provide competitive returns to shareholders.
Net capital investment will be some $30 billion in 2012, with over around 80% Upstream, of which 60% will be in North America and Australia.
Moreover, in Upstream, the company expects some 250,000 boe/d of asset sales and licence expiries over the 2012-17 timeframe. Assuming these impacts play out, oil & gas production should average some 4 million boe/d in 2017-18, an increase of some 25% from 2011 levels of 3.2 million boe/d.
Shell's CEO Peter Voser commented, "..We are delivering our growth plans. Today's update sets a new and sustainable growth agenda for the company. We declared over $10 billion of dividends in 2011 and we are expecting to return to dividend growth for 2012. This reflects our confidence that there is more to come from Shell. "
In a separate release, the company reported fourth-quarter pre-tax profit of $11.81 billion, higher than $11.26 billion a year ago.
Income attributable to Royal Dutch Shell shareholders dropped to $6.5 billion from $6.79 billion in the prior-year quarter.
Earnings per share were $1.04, down from $1.10 a year ago. CCS earnings per share rose to $1.03 from last year's $0.93.
CCS earnings per share, excluding identified items, were up to $0.78 from $0.67 in the previous year.
Revenue grew to $115.58 billion from $100.71 billion in the prior-year quarter.
Royal Dutch Shell Chief Executive Officer Peter Voser commented,
"Our fourth quarter results were impacted by a sharp downturn in industryrefining margins and North American natural gas prices. The global economy andenergy markets are likely to see continued high volatility. Despite thenear-term uncertainties, Shell's focus remains on through-cycle investment forsustainable growth.."
In yet another release, Royal Dutch Shell announced an interim dividend in respect of the fourth quarter of 2011 of $0.42 per A ordinary share and B ordinary share, equal to the US dollar dividend forthe same quarter last year.
The Board expects that the first quarter 2012 interim dividend will be $0.43, an increase of 2% over the US dollar dividend for the same quarter in the previous year. The first quarter 2012 interim dividend is scheduled to be announced on April 26, 2012.
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