Royal Dutch Shell announces surging net profits

Royal Dutch Shell said Thursday that net profit almost tripled to more than $4.0 billion in the third quarter, helped largely by recovering oil prices.

Profit after tax rocketed to $4.087 billion (3.505 billion euros) in the three months to September from $1.375 billion in the third quarter of 2016, the Anglo-Dutch energy giant said in a statement.

“Earnings benefited mainly from stronger refining and chemicals industry conditions, increased realised oil and gas prices and higher production from new fields, offsetting the impact of field declines and divestments,” the group said.

Shell is in the process of selling off assets worth $30 billion over two years up to 2018 — and has since offloaded more than two-thirds of that amount.

It is making investments of $25 billion this year, down on 2016 when Shell bought smaller British peer BG Group in a move to strengthen its position in the liquefied natural gas market.