Coverage spread: 2 sources — 1 center · 1 international
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Shell reported second-quarter profits of $9.84bn (£7.37bn) for the April-to-June period, more than double the $4.26bn it earned in the same quarter last year, according to BBC Business. Combined with first-quarter profits of $6.92bn, the company’s first-half earnings surged 70% year-on-year. The jump follows the outbreak of the US-Israel war with Iran, which disrupted global oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies through the Strait of Hormuz and sent crude prices sharply higher.
What drove the profit surge
Before the conflict began, Brent crude — the global benchmark — traded around $73 a barrel. Since the war started, prices spiked above $120 a barrel before retreating below $100 amid uncertainty over whether the Strait of Hormuz would reopen. BBC Business explains that these sharp price swings widened the gap between buying and selling prices, which benefited Shell’s trading arm in particular. Shell chief executive Wael Sawan credited the company’s “operational performance” for enabling “very strong results during another quarter of severe disruption in global energy markets.” Analyst Maurizio Carulli of Quilter Cheviot said the “standout contribution” came from Shell’s trading operation, which he said demonstrated the value of the company’s integrated business model, alongside solid refining, chemicals performance, and growing oil production in Brazil.
Production setbacks in Qatar
The conflict has not been entirely favorable for Shell’s operations. Its LNG production in Qatar has been shut down since early March because of the war, and its Pearl gas-to-liquids facility there suffered what the company called “extensive damage” after being struck in a missile attack in March; repairs are expected to take about a year. As a result, Shell’s overall gas production fell to 631,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the second quarter, down from 909,000 barrels per day in the first quarter. Total oil and gas production for the first half of 2025 fell 16% compared with the same period last year, though Shell pointed to new output gains in Brazil and the Gulf of Mexico — which President Trump ordered renamed the Gulf of America last year — as partial offsets.
Reaction and criticism
Shell is not alone in posting outsized profits this year: BP and Norway’s Equinor have also benefited from oil-price volatility and trading gains, according to BBC Business. Environmental campaigners were critical of the results. Danny Gross, an energy campaigner at Friends of the Earth, called it “outrageous” that Shell is profiting heavily while heatwaves and wildfires hit the UK and Europe, arguing the profits stem from an energy crisis that has left households struggling with high costs.
How the coverage compares
The BBC Business account offers the fullest picture of Shell’s earnings, detailing the specific profit figures, the Qatar production disruptions, executive commentary, analyst reaction, and environmental criticism. It frames the story primarily around Shell’s corporate results and the mixed impact of the Iran conflict — a boost to trading profits offset by real operational damage in Qatar.
A MarketWatch piece referenced alongside this story is framed differently: rather than covering Shell’s earnings directly, its headline suggests the United States Oil Fund (USO), an oil ETF, may be a preferable way for investors to gain exposure to crude prices compared with trading oil futures directly amid the ongoing Iran-related volatility. No article text was available for this piece, so its specific reasoning, data, or expert commentary cannot be summarized here — only that it appears aimed at investors seeking practical guidance on navigating the same oil-price swings that boosted Shell’s trading results, rather than at readers following the corporate earnings story itself.
Why it matters
Shell’s results illustrate how geopolitical shocks — in this case a war disrupting one of the world’s key oil chokepoints, the Strait of Hormuz — can simultaneously damage physical energy infrastructure and inflate profits at diversified energy companies with large trading operations. The disconnect between soaring corporate profits and the higher energy costs faced by households, as raised by Friends of the Earth, echoes criticism directed at oil majors during earlier energy-price shocks, such as the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. With crude prices remaining volatile and Qatar’s LNG capacity impaired for up to a year, the episode underscores the ongoing exposure of global energy markets and consumers to instability in the Middle East.
Sources
Featured photo: Wikimedia Commons via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)