Shell 1Q21 business update & new Xebec director +3

09:07 07-Apr-21

Royal Dutch Shell has published its first quarter business update:

Gas:

• production of 940+/-20K BoE/day up another 20K
• liquefaction 8.1+/-.3M tonnes, down 0.2M tonnes
  
• trading and optimization are expected to be below average
  

Upstream: production of 2.4375+/-0.375M bpd, up 5.4%, and profitable despite a $40M Texas storm impact

Downstream:

• 73+/-2% Refinery Utilization is down 1%, with a slightly improved margin
  
• Oil sales 4200+/-500K/day, down 300K
  
• 79+/-2% Chemicals Manufacturing utilization, down 2.5%
• Chemical Sales 3600+/-100K tonnes, down 4%

Other:

• Corporate expense is expected to be $650+/-50M excluding currency effects

The substantially lower corporate expense is good to see and Shell continues to be helped by Brent still above $63.  Shell also published its ESG report this morning, and I remain more interested in Xebec, which just added an oil & gas industry veteran to its board.