Royal Dutch Shell said it will pursue “at pace” a $7 billion share buyback largely funded from the sale of its US shale business as it faces liquefied natural gas outages and slower fuel sales due to the economic hit from Omicron.
Shell said that its production and liquefaction volumes were impacted in the fourth quarter by unplanned maintenance, mainly in Australia, where its giant Prelude floating LNG vessel was hit by a power outage. Shell’s LNG trading results in the fourth quarter of 2021 are, however, set to be “significantly higher” compared to the third quarter.
Last year Shell sold its Permian Basin shale oil assets to ConocoPhillips for $9.5 billion in cash, an exit from the largest US oilfield as it shifted its focus to a clean energy transition. It said it would return $7 billion of the proceeds to shareholders on top of 20% to 30% of cashflow from operations.
They sound desperate, Wild Coast is on trouble now...