Oil giant Shell reports soaring first-quarter profits, raises dividend

Oil giant Shell reports soaring first-quarter profits, raises dividend

LONDON — Oil giant on Thursday reported its highest quarterly profit since 2008 on soaring commodity prices, fueling calls for a one-off windfall tax on oil and gas companies to help U.K. households with spiraling energy bills. Shell posted adjusted earnings of $9.1 billion for the three months through to the end of March, in line with expectations of analysts polled by Refinitiv. That compared with over the same period a year earlier and for the fourth quarter of 2021. The company also announced plans to increase its dividend by around 4% to $0.25 per share for the first quarter. Of the firm's $8.5 billion share buyback program announced for the first half of the year, Shell said $4 billion had been completed to date. The remaining $4.5 billion share buybacks are scheduled to be completed before the announcement of second-quarter earnings. Shell's results echo bumper profits seen across the oil and gas industry, even as many energy majors incur costly write-downs from exiting Russia. U.K. rival on Tuesday plans to boost share buybacks after first-quarter net profit jumped to its highest level in more than a decade. France's , Norway's and U.S. oil giants and  also reported strong