Royal Dutch Shell Plc posted a 2.6% rise in underlying fourth quarter profits on Thursday, beating analysts’ forecasts thanks to higher production and strong oil prices, Reuters reports.
Shell said in a statement its fourth-quarter current cost of supply (CCS) net profit, which strips out changes in the value of inventory, was $6 billion, helped by profits from selling oil and gas fields.
For 2006, CCS profit was 25.4 billion, up 12%.
Excluding non-operating items, the underlying result for the fourth quarter was $5.5 billion, above an average forecast of $5.215 billion in a Reuters poll of 10 analysts