Hurricane? What hurricane?
LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell Plc reported a record third-quarter profit on Thursday, beating analysts' forecasts as surging oil prices outweighed losses from hurricanes which stalled production in the Gulf of Mexico.
The world's third-largest listed oil firm by market capitalization said its current cost of supply (CCS) net profit, which strips out gains from rises in the value of fuel inventories, rose 68 percent to $7.369 billion.
A Reuters poll of 10 analysts gave an average forecast of $5.12 billion for Shell's clean CCS profit -- the most closely watched profit measure -- with a range of $4.7-$5.8 billion.
The results boosted Shell's shares. The firm's London-listed "A" shares traded up 1.7 percent at 1,720 pence at 1103 GMT, compared to a 0.9 percent drop in the DJ Stoxx European oil and gas sector index (^SXEP - news).
Oil prices, which peaked at above $70 a barrel in August, more than compensated for lost production in the Gulf of Mexico after the busiest Atlantic hurricane season since records began disrupted production and refining on the U.S. Gulf coast.
"CCS is much better than expected ... We are positively surprised that the impact of hurricane costs is lower than anticipated," Margarita Shevtsova, analyst at Bank Oyens & van Eeghen said.
"Why we're just shocked! Shocked I tell you! We had no idea that speculation of shortages would drive the price soooo high! By the way, can we have some more tax breaks? Cause if we don't get them, well, we just might have to raise the price again...."