Royal Dutch Shell reported increased earnings in the first quarter this morning, bouyed by soaring oil prices which offset the weakness in the Anglo-Dutch group's downstream business.
Quarter to March earnings, on a current cost of supply basis, rose to $7.776 billion from $6.932 billion previously.
They included one-off charges of $77 million in the quarter against gains of $371 million previously.
After taking into account the impact of one-off items, net CCS earnings grew to $7.853 billion from $6.561 billion, ahead of the consensus estimate of $6.772 billion.
Production rose to 3.522 million barrels of oil equivalent per day from 3.509 million boepd last time.
Shell raised quarterly dividends by 11 per cent to $0.40 a share.
