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Shell expects a $600 million hit in the third quarter from abandoning its biofuels project in Rotterdam, it said on Tuesday while flagging higher liquefied natural gas production and better gas trading results.
Shell had approved development of the 820,000 metric tons per year biofuels plant in 2021, but paused construction last year and scrapped it entirely last month because it would not have been competitive.
The company raised its third-quarter outlook for LNG production to a range of 7 million to 7.4 million metric tons and it expects trading results to be significantly higher in its integrated gas division, it said in a quarterly trading update released on Tuesday.
Shell previously expected LNG production of about 6.7 million to 7.3 million tons, the oil major said in July, compared to 6.7 million tons in the second quarter.
Lower gas trading results and lower oil prices weighed on Shell’s second quarter net profit, which dropped by about a third.
Shell, which is looking to find new partners or to sell some of its chemicals assets, expects its chemicals division to record a loss in the quarter.
It also flagged a $200 million to $400 million hit from the “rebalancing of participation interests” in its Brazilian Tupi field.
Shell sees its indicative refining margin in the third quarter rising to $11.6 per barrel from $8.9 in the previous three months.
Global benchmark Brent crude prices LCOc1 averaged around $68 a barrel during the July-to-September quarter, compared with $67 in the second quarter and $79 in the same period of last year.
(Reuters – Reporting by Stephanie Kelly and Shadia NasrallaEditing by David Goodman, Kirsten Donovan)