By Jaime Llinares Taboada


Shell PLC on Thursday reported better-than-expected earnings for the fourth quarter, and said it will launch a share buyback program of $8.5 billion for the first half of 2022.

The oil-and-gas giant generated adjusted earnings of $6.39 billion in the three months through the end of December, beating the market consensus of $5.22 billion, taken from Vara Research and averaged from 22 analysts' estimates. This was up from $4.13 billion in the third quarter and from $393 million in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Helped by stronger hydrocarbon demand and prices, Shell's 2021 adjusted earnings jumped to $19.29 billion from $4.85 billion in 2020, surpassing the $16.46 billion achieved in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic.

Net income was $11.46 billion for the quarter and $20.10 billion for the whole year.

The company is launching a share buyback of $8.5 billion for the first half of 2022, comprising $5.5 billion of proceeds from the Permian divestment and $3.0 billion as part of the capital allocation framework. In addition, Shell declared a quarterly dividend of $0.24 a share, unchanged from the third quarter.


Write to Jaime Llinares Taboada at jaime.llinares@wsj.com; @JaimeLlinaresT


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

02-03-22 0236ET