LONDON (Bernama-PA Media/dpa) – Oil giants Shell and BP aim to rebound from billion-pound losses as they seek to calm investor jitters.
BP hopes to break a more than three-month-long losing streak on the stock market, reported PA Media/dpa news.
Despite a short-lived rally in June, the company’s shares are now down more than 15 per cent compared with their 2024 peak in the first half of April.
Earlier this month the London-listed oil group revealed that it had taken a hit of between USD1 and USD2 billion from onerous contracts. This included an impairment from its plans to review its German refining business.
The business at the time also revealed that lower margins in refining mean that its second-quarter results – set to be revealed on Tuesday – will face an additional hit of USD500 million to USD700 million.
Investors hope announcing its bad news at the start of the month will allow BP to focus on more positive news on July 30.
Analysts expect the business to report an underlying replacement cost profit of USD2.54 billion down from USD2.59 billion a year ago.
Shell also revealed a hit of up to USD2 billion for suspending work on a Dutch biofuel plant and selling a Singapore refinery.
The Rotterdam site is meant to produce 820,000 tonnes of biofuels every year by 2025, but the suspension now puts that at risk.
Yet despite this hit, Shell’s shares have not been quite as sluggish in recent months as its London rival BP.
In the same period that BP’s shares have fallen more than 15 per cent, Shell’s share price is only down less than 5 per cent.
In the same update earlier this month, the business said that integrated gas production will hit guidance of between 940,000 and 980,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Analysts expect that Shell’s adjusted earnings on August 1 will be USD6.01 billion in the second quarter, up from USD5.07 billion a year earlier.
