On Thursday, Royal Dutch Shell said that its third-quarter earnings would be massively hit by the hurricane but also be boosted by soaring energy prices.
Earnings in the July-September quarter were affected as much as USD400 million by Hurricane Ida in August.
However, the company’s cash flows were also boosted by the soaring natural gas and electricity prices. Large variation margin inflows were high on the back of the prevailing gas and electricity price environment.
Shell estimated the liquefaction in the quarter to be at the lowest level since 2016 at 7-7.5 million tonnes on the back of the gas feedstock constraints and additional maintenance.
Its upstream oil and gas output slumped to around 2.025-2.1 million boepd on account of the extended outage of around 90,000 boepd at some of its offshore fields in the Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Ida.
However, sales volumes were estimated to be at the highest level since the first quarter of 2020 but still lower significantly than the pre-pandemic era at between 4.3-5.3 million bpd.
