The oil giant said full-year underlying earnings dropped 22% to 18.53 billion US dollars (£13.6 billion).
Shell has laid bare the impact of last year’s tumbling oil prices as it reported a worse-than-expected 22% plunge in annual profits.
The oil giant said underlying earnings – which strips out some commodity-price adjustments and one-off charges – dropped to 18.53 billion US dollars (£13.6 billion) for 2025 after a 40% plunge quarter-on-quarter in the final three months of the year.
Despite the heavy profit fall, the FTSE 100 firm announced another 3.5 billion dollars (£2.7 billion) of share buybacks to be completed in the first quarter of the year, on top of a dividend hike.
Shell chief executive Wael Sawan said: “2025 was a year of accelerated momentum, with strong operational and financial performance across Shell.”
He added: “In the fourth quarter, despite lower earnings in a softer macro (environment), cash delivery remained solid and today we announce a 4% increase in our dividend and 3.5 billion dollars share buyback, making this the 17th consecutive quarter of at least three billion dollars of buybacks.”
The profits hit comes after the cost of crude dropped by 19% in 2025 and for a record-breaking third year in a row, as there was more supply than needed in the world economy.
The falls came in a year dominated by conflict, higher tariffs and rising supply from oil producers, with Brent crude dropping below 60 dollars a barrel last month for the first time in almost five years.
