Shell Profits Double to $10.8bn as Middle East Conflict Lifts Fuel Margins

Shell's profits have doubled over the latest quarter, as the conflict in the Middle East pushed up oil and gas prices and left the global market short of supply.

The company said on Thursday that its adjusted profit for the July to September period came to $10.8bn (£8.1bn), compared with $5.432bn in the third quarter of 2025. Analysts had expected a smaller rise, to $10.33bn. The result was also higher than the $9.836bn Shell made in the second quarter of this year.

Shell said it will return $5bn to investors over the next three months through its share buyback programme, up from $3bn in the previous quarter. Its shares rose by 3% in early trading.

Chief executive Wael Sawan credited the company's "relentless focus on operational performance" for what he called very strong results in a quarter of "continued severe disruption to the global energy system".

Climate campaigners were sharply critical. Philip Evans, a senior campaigner at Greenpeace, said: "As fossil-fuelled storms, floods, and soaring costs wreck communities, oil executives like Shell's Wael Sawan are popping champagne on the deck of a sinking planet. We are paying with our lives and paychecks while they cash in on our misery."

Refining was a major driver. Earlier this month Shell told investors it expected margins at its refineries to climb to $42 for each barrel of fuel produced in the quarter, far above the $24 a barrel recorded in the second quarter. The figure is also well above the previous record for petroleum products of about $28 a barrel, set in the early months of the Russia-Ukraine war. Shortages in the global market, caused by severe damage to refineries in the Middle East and Russia, have supported the higher margins.

The conflict has not been entirely beneficial for the company. Severe damage to one of Shell's key gas processing facilities in the Gulf hit its gas output, which fell by a third from its prewar level of 900,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

Prices for energy rose across the quarter. Europe's benchmark gas price index averaged almost €64 per megawatt-hour in the third quarter, up from more than €48 in the second quarter. The global oil price benchmark averaged $94.90 a barrel, compared with $69.10 a barrel in the same quarter last year.

The steady rise in commodity prices has lifted the market value of Europe's biggest oil and gas company, which is now the largest on the UK's FTSE 100 index. Shell's share price reached a record high of more than £40 earlier this month, as the global oil price climbed towards $117 a barrel, its highest level in six months.