Royal Dutch Shell reported profits of £5bn for the second quarter of 2011, a rise of 77 per cent on 2010's results.
The oil and gas company said that it profited from a 49 per cent rise in oil prices, caused partly by increased unrest in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as from the expansion of projects in Qatar and Canada. Shell brought two projects online in Qatar and also expanded its controversial Canadian Oil Sands operation.
Shell expects these new projects to contribute more than 400,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day under peak conditions, for an investment cost of nearly £20bn. However, total oil and gas production at Shell dropped by 2 per cent compared to 2010, with 3m barrels of oil equivalent being produced per day between April and June 2011. This fall occurred due to the selling off of some Shell owned assets as well as delays in obtaining drilling permits for the Gulf of Mexico.
Peter Voser, chief executive at Shell, defended the company's profits whilst promising a "new wave" of production expansion, saying that:
"Shell reinvests its profits to meet customer demand for low cost energy, and to pay attractive returns to shareholders."
The announcement comes just days after BP reported a lower than forecast 13 per cent rise in underlying net profits. Shell's larger competitor Exxon Mobil is predicted to report a 50 per cent rise in underlying net income on Thursday.