Shell increases profits from oil business in 2020
The oil giant has doubled its profits in the past year.

Shell doubled its profit in trading crude oil and refined products in 2020 from 2019, with trading offsetting some of the negative effects of the collapse in refining margins and fuel demand during the pandemic. Shell's detailed 2020 annual report this week showed that the Trading & Supply segment was a major contributor to Oil Products, with profits rising to nearly $ 2.6 billion, doubling Trading & Supply's profit of 1.3 billion . USD for 2019 means. Total Oil Products revenue declined to $ 5.995 billion in 2020, excluding net expenses of nearly $ 6.5 billion, compared to $ 6.231 billion in 2019 profit. Trading & Supply made 43 last year Percent of $ 5.995 billion in profit in the division, or $ 2.58 billion. By comparison, in the last "normal year" before the pandemic, Trading & Supply accounted for 21 percent of 2019 profits of $ 6.231 billion and brought in $ 1.3 billion. The increased revenues from trading crude oil and refined products helped to some extent mitigate the effects of low oil prices, low refinery utilization and low fuel demand over the past year. Shell's profits plummeted 87 percent in 2020, but the super major, unlike BP or ExxonMobil, managed to stay in the black. BP also benefits from its trading business. The UK-based super major sees its return on average capital employed in its large oil trading business likely around $ 2.5 billion annually, according to Bloomberg's September estimates, based on the company's latest capital market releases. Like most other large oil companies, BP does not disclose how much its oil trading unit makes or how profitable these businesses are. Europe's oil and gas super majors such as BP, Shell and Total have extensive oil trading activities and often trade more crude oil than the largest independent commodity traders such as Trafigura, Vitol or Glencore.





