* Lifts 2012 disposals target to $4 bln from $2-3 bln
* Production rises modestly
By Tom Bergin
LONDON, April 26 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell beat
forecasts with an 11 percent rise in fourth-quarter profit, as
higher oil prices outweighed the impact of lower U.S. gas
prices.
Europe’s largest oil company by market capitalization said
on Thursday its current cost of supply (CCS) net income was
$7.70 billion.
Excluding one-offs, the result was $7.27 billion, compared
with a forecast for $6.70 billion in a company poll of analysts.
Shell lifted its target for assets sales in 2012 to $4
billion from $2-3 billion, echoing an industry trend of
companies trying to churn their portfolios more regularly.
By jettisoning mature assets earlier in their life cycle,
companies hope to focus reserves on higher growth activities.
Production was up 1.4 percent in the quarter compared to the
same period a year earlier at 3.55 million barrels of oil
equivalent per day, with the ramp-up of new projects being
off-set by asset sales.
Shell’s refining division produced a weaker underlying
result despite some improvement in industry refining margins.
Chief executive Peter Voser said he expected weakness in the
division to continue, and for low U.S. natural gas prices to
continue to eat into profit.
“In downstream and North American natural gas we see
continued challenges for our industry,” he said.
Brent crude prices averaged $118.60 per barrel last
quarter, up from $105.43 a year before.
CCS earnings strip out unrealised gains or losses related to
changes in the value of inventories, and as such are comparable
with net income under U.S. accounting rules.
