Shell super-sizes dividend and ditches oil production cuts
Shell will ditch a plan to gradually reduce oil production over the coming years and choose instead to “stabilise” production until the end of the decade.
The bombshell announcement came in the same market update which revealed a 15 per cent dividend bump-up from the second quarter of this year.
CEO Wael Sawan will also move forward with share buybacks of at least $5bn over the second half of the year.
Shell confirmed it still plans to become a ‘net zero emissions energy business’ by 2050 but a 2021 plan to gradually roll back production of oil appears to have gone by the wayside.
The firm will however invest $10-15bn over the next two years to support the development of low-carbon energy including biofuels, hydrogen and carbon capture and storage.
The move will anger green-focussed politicians.
Shell has been bruised and battered by the windfall tax, brought in on oil and gas firms which operate in the North Sea.
Though only around 5 per cent of its revenues come from the UK, it expects to pay more than £400m additional tax to the Treasury this year.