Shell has reignited outrage among climate activists by handing billions to its shareholders after making profits that campaigners have described as “obscene”.
Protests were held outside the oil company’s London headquarters on Thursday after it reported second-quarter profits of just over $5bn (£3.9bn) in the same week that wildfires linked to the climate crisis burned across Mediterranean countries.
Those profits were down sharply on the $11.5bn Shell made in the same three months last year, when the energy crisis was at its peak and reflected lower prices on the global markets. Despite this, shareholders will still pocket a multibillion dollar payout between them.
Shell’s chief executive, Wael Sawan, said the company would spend $3bn on buying back shares in the next three months and, subject to board approval, another $2.5bn after its third-quarter results. Last year, the company handed $26bn to shareholders.
On Thursday morning, Greenpeace protested outside the Shell Centre on London’s South Bank, erecting a billboard featuring the oil company’s logo and the slogan: “Our profit, your loss”.
Maja Darlington, a campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said: “While millions attempt to rebuild their lives after months of extreme weather wreaked havoc from Rhodes to Rajasthan, Shell is upping oil and gas production, slashing investment in renewables and posting billions of dollars in profits.”
According to analysis by the NGO Global Witness, Shell’s investment in oil and gas projects for 2023 is predicted to climb to £11.3bn, a 10% increase from the previous year. The investments are expected to rise by another 7% next year, according to the analysis of data from the consultancy Rystad.
Jonathan Noronha-Gant, a senior campaigner at Global Witness, said: “This is a company that acknowledges the urgency of the climate crisis. And yet it has U-turned on its climate commitments and doubled down on toxic fossil fuel energy.
“Every house burnt to the ground, every town forced to evacuate, every ecosystem lost to a wildfire is a necessary consequence of a business model like Shell’s, which prioritises short-term cash grabs over the safety and survivability of our societies.”
Sawan told investors last month that Shell would abandon plans to cut oil production each year for the rest of the decade and keep its fossil fuel production steady until 2030. He also angered green groups by claiming that cutting the world’s oil and gas production would be dangerous and irresponsible.
George Dibb, the head of the Centre for Economic Justice at the thinktank IPPR, said Shell had proven its commitment to putting profits and shareholders “over our planet”.
“It continues to make huge amounts of money off the back of the war in Ukraine and high energy prices. Meanwhile, incredibly, Shell is now paying more out to its shareholders in dividends and buybacks than it makes in profit, clearly prioritising these transfers over investing a net zero future,” Dibb said.
Izzie McIntosh, a climate campaigner at the NGO Global Justice Now, said: “As extreme heat rips through large parts of the globe and people still struggle to pay their bills, Shell has once again made obscene profits out of fuelling climate disaster.”
In May, Shell was accused of a “profiteering bonanza” after it made record first-quarter profits of nearly $10bn and showered shareholders with more than $6bn in dividend payments and share buybacks, even as oil and gas prices tumbled from last year’s highs.
Last year, the FTSE 100 company made adjusted profits of $11.5bn during the second quarter, beating its previous high by 25% as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused global energy markets to soar.
Global oil and gas market prices have tumbled since reaching a peak last year. The global oil price averaged $76.60 a barrel in the last quarter, down from an average of about $112 in the second quarter of last year as Russia’s attack on Ukraine intensified.
