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Empresas y finanzas

Shell, Eni third quarter profits jump, beat forecasts


    By Tom Bergin

    LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Italy's Eni SpA beat analyst forecasts with sharply higher third-quarter profits on Thursday, boosted by higher oil and gas prices and underpinning a strong sector trend.

    Shell, Europe's largest oil company by market value, said net income on a current cost of supply (CCS) basis rose 18 percent to $3.52 billion.

    However its underlying result was up 88 percent on a year ago after stripping out one-off items and over $1 billion in non-cash charges, mainly related to writedowns in the value of refining assets.

    Italian rival Eni reported a 47.5 percent rise in adjusted, or underlying, net profit.

    Analysts, who usually ignore non-cash charges and one-offs and prefer to focus on underlying performance, said both companies' results were well ahead of forecasts.

    Big oil companies are being helped by a 12 percent rise in crude prices compared with the third quarter of 2009, while U.S. natural gas prices were 29 percent higher and British gas prices doubled. Average global refining margins also rose.

    ConocoPhillips , the third-largest U.S. oil company, said on Wednesday its quarterly profit more than doubled, beating analysts predictions.

    Industry leader Exxon Mobil is due to report third-quarter results later on Thursday and analysts have forecast a 53 percent rise in net income to $7.26 billion.

    Shell's CCS earnings strip out unrealized gains or losses in the value of inventories related to changes in oil prices, and are comparable with net income under U.S. accounting rules.

    Shell also contributed to its rebound with a 5 percent rise in oil and gas production in the quarter to 3.1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), just ahead of forecasts.

    Eni said output rose 1.5 percent.

    Shell Chief Executive Peter Voser said the company would continue to sell non-core assets, especially in retail and refining, and promised a rationalization of some of the Anglo-Dutch group's natural gas assets in North America.

    Shell shares traded up 1.1 percent at 0922 GMT, in line with the rise in the STOXX Europe 600 Oil and Gas index . Eni shares were up 2.6 percent.

    (Editing by Michael Shields and David Holmes)