Shell's profit nearly doubles as Middle East war lifts oil and gas prices

Shell reported an adjusted profit of $10.8bn for the July to September quarter, according to its results published on 29 October 2026. That is up from $5.432bn in the same quarter of 2025, and it beat the $10.33bn that analysts had expected. Shell's profit for the previous quarter, April to June, was $9.836bn.

The company, led by chief executive Wael Sawan, said it plans to return $5bn to investors over the next three months through its share buyback programme, in which a company buys its own shares. That is up from $3bn in the previous quarter.

Refining was a major source of the gain. Shell forecast refinery profit margins, the profit made on each barrel of crude oil processed into fuels, of $42 per barrel for July to September. In the second quarter the figure was $24 per barrel.

Prices were higher across the board. The global oil benchmark, a reference price used across the market, averaged $94.90 per barrel in the third quarter, compared with $69.10 in the same quarter last year. Europe's benchmark gas price averaged almost €64 per megawatt-hour, up from over €48 in the second quarter.

Production moved the other way. Shell's gas output, which stood at 900,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day before the Middle East war, fell by a third during the conflict. Oil equivalent is a unit that converts gas volumes into the energy equivalent of oil.

Shell's share price rose to a record high of more than £40 per share earlier in October, when oil climbed towards $117 per barrel.