advertisement COMPANIES Dow Jones, Reuters Royal Dutch Shell PLC ADS Cl A (RDSA)   PRICE CHANGE U.S. dollars 60.65 1.15 10/27     BP PLC ADS (BP)   PRICE CHANGE U.S. dollars 65.15 -0.92 10/27   * At Market Close  E-MAIL SIGN-UP Find out the latest market movements and trends in our e-mail alerts. Check the boxes below to subscribe. The Morning Brief The Afternoon Report The Evening Wrap To view all or change any of your e-mail settings, click to the E-Mail Setup Center RELATED INDUSTRIES • Energy     Personalized Home Page Setup   Put headlines on your homepage about the companies, industries and topics that interest you most.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Shell's Net Profit Rises 68% On Oil Prices, Pipeline Sale: "The company, which earlier this year disclosed massive budget overruns and a half-year delay at its giant Sakhalin II gas project in Russia, didn't update investors on a capital-spending review it is undertaking as a result of the overruns. Shell said revised guidance for 2006 spending would be given in December.": Friday 28 October 2005

LONDON -- Royal Dutch Shell PLC said higher oil prices, robust refining profits and gains from divestments lifted earnings in the third quarter by 68%, more than making up for lost production and repair costs related to this year's two ferocious Gulf of Mexico hurricanes.

Shell said net income rose to $9.03 billion, or $1.35 a share, from $5.37 billion, or 79 cents a share, a year earlier. Shell's revenue rose 8% to $76.44 billion from $70.69 billion. Shell's numbers conform to international financial-reporting standards, which differ from U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.

The results were bolstered by special net gains of some $1.57 billion, in large part related to divestments, including a $1.77 billion gain from the sale of pipeline assets in the Netherlands. Shell reported net special charges of $28 million in the third quarter last year.

Shell, the world's third-largest publicly traded oil company by market capitalization, estimated Hurricanes Katrina and Rita will cost it some $350 million after tax in repair costs and lost production, though the company said it could get some of that back in insurance claims.

MORE ON EARNINGS
 

 

Read up on major companies still to report in this autumn's earnings season.

Shell and No. 2 BP PLC, both big operators in the Gulf, were among the hardest hit by the two storms. But the financial impact has so far been largely overshadowed by tremendous profit gains attributed to higher hydrocarbon prices -- which were given a further lift by the production disruptions caused by the hurricanes.

BP said earlier this month that the storms knocked down pretax profits in the quarter by some $700 million.

Shell said total oil and gas production fell 11% to 3.2 million barrels of oil equivalent a day from 3.6 million a day a year earlier. The two storms bottled up some 160,000 barrels a day in production on average in the quarter.

Shell said that it has restored about 44% of its 450,000-barrel-a-day Gulf production so far and expects that to be up to 78% by the end of the year. But the company said its huge offshore Mars energy-production platform, severely damaged by Katrina, won't likely be operational again until the second half of next year.

The company, which earlier this year disclosed massive budget overruns and a half-year delay at its giant Sakhalin II gas project in Russia, didn't update investors on a capital-spending review it is undertaking as a result of the overruns. Shell said revised guidance for 2006 spending would be given in December.

Shell said it was continuing to see oilfield costs increase: Its capital expenditures for its core exploration and production businesses jumped 21% from the same period last year to $2.5 billion. But it said its overall 2005 spending budget remains at about $15 billion.

In midmorning trading in London, Shell shares were up 20 pence, or 1.2%, to 1711 pence apiece.

Write to Chip Cummins at chip.cummins@wsj.com