British energy giant Shell on Thursday reported an 11 per cent rise in net profit for 2025, as higher production volumes and cost reductions helped offset weaker oil and gas prices.
The company said profit after tax increased to $17.84 billion in 2025, up from $16.1 billion recorded the previous year.
Energy prices came under pressure last year amid concerns that tariffs introduced by United States President Donald Trump could slow global economic growth. Prices also declined further due to increased output by OPEC+ oil-producing nations.
More recently, oil prices rebounded as Trump escalated military threats against major oil producer Iran, but later eased as tensions between Washington and Tehran subsided.
Shell said its underlying earnings — which exclude certain price movements and one-off charges — fell 22 per cent to $18.53 billion in 2025. In the fourth quarter alone, net profit dropped 22 per cent from the previous quarter to $4.1 billion.
“In Q4, despite lower earnings, cash delivery remained solid,” Shell Chief Executive Officer Wael Sawan said in a statement.
He announced that the company would increase dividends to shareholders and launch a new $3.5 billion share buyback programme.
Despite the positive annual results, Shell’s shares fell 1.9 per cent on London’s FTSE 100 index, which was down 0.5 per cent overall on Thursday.
Commenting on the performance, Richard Hunter, Head of Markets at Interactive Investor, said the final quarter was a weak one for the company, largely due to oil price volatility.
“The volatility of the oil price inevitably had an effect as tepid demand and oversupply put a dampener on any price progress,” he said.
Brent North Sea crude, the international oil benchmark, was trading 1.6 per cent lower at $68.33 per barrel on Thursday.
Shell has increasingly shifted focus back to fossil fuels, announcing in November that it would exit two offshore wind projects in the North Sea. The move reflects a broader strategy to prioritise more profitable oil and gas operations over some renewable energy investments.
In an online video released on Thursday, Sawan said Shell had “entered 2026 as a more resilient organisation.”
“We have raised the bar on operational performance, we are showing more discipline and making great progress to deliver more value with less emissions,” he said.
He added that the company was concentrating on lowering costs, improving performance through the use of artificial intelligence, and building a higher-return portfolio.
Like several of its peers, Shell has scaled back some climate targets in favour of boosting oil and gas production. Rival BP, which is due to release its 2025 earnings next Tuesday, announced last month that it expects to take a write-down of up to $5 billion linked to its energy operations.
Meanwhile, Shell’s year-end was marked by a legal challenge in the United Kingdom, where survivors of a deadly 2021 typhoon in the Philippines filed a lawsuit seeking compensation for climate-related damages.
Typhoon Rai struck the southern and central Philippines in December 2021, killing more than 400 people and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless. The lawsuit, filed by British law firm Hausfeld on behalf of 103 survivors, argues that Shell’s carbon emissions contributed to climate change and worsened the impact on affected communities.
