- Adverse impact from Hurricane Ida amounts to $400 million.
- High margins inflows from gas, power impact cash flow.
Royal Dutch Shell Plcsaid the events of a turbulent third quarter, from hurricanes to big swings in gas and power prices, will have a significant impact on its financials.
Hurricane Ida, which shut down a swathe of oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico, will have an aggregate adverse impact on adjusted earnings of $400 million, Shell said in a statement on Thursday. On the flip-side, cash flow from operations will be “significantly impacted” by higher margin inflows related to power and gas, the company said.
Shell’s outlook gives the first glimpse of what’s likely to be an unpredictable third quarter for the oil majors. From Europe to Asia, consumers are seeing an unprecedented surge in the prices of commodities from gas and coal to metals and food products.
The company’s trading division, a secretive operation for which earnings are particularly hard to predict, is expected to have higher results from gas than in the second quarter, according to the statement. Margins will be lower from chemicals and higher in refining.
An increase of $1 per million British thermal units in the price of Europe’s gas benchmark, the TTF based in the Netherlands, typically boosts Shell’s adjusted earnings by $150 million, the company said. The front-month TTF contract jumped by more than $18 in the third quarter and has risen higher since, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.