Shell’s third-quarter refining margins fall sharply By Reuters

By Ron Bousso

LONDON (Reuters) – Shell refiner profit margins fell sharply in the third quarter from the previous three months as global demand fell, while revenues from trading oil products also fell, it said on Monday. .

In a trading update ahead of its quarterly results on October 31, Shell ( LON: ) said its guidance refining margins fell almost 30% to $5.5 a barrel in the three months to the end of the month September, from 7.7 dollars per barrel in the previous period. .

Trading results for the chemicals and petroleum products division were expected to be lower than in the second quarter, Shell said.

Global refining margins have come under pressure in recent months as economic activity slows, particularly in China, and as new refineries come online.

Shell, the world’s largest liquefied petroleum gas trader, also raised its LNG production guidance for the quarter to a range of 7.3 million to 7.7 million metric tons for the quarter, from a forecast previous 6.8 million to 7.4 million tons.

LNG trading results were set to be in line with the previous quarter.

The London-listed company also raised its outlook for upstream oil and gas production for the quarter to 1.74 million to 1.84 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, from 1.58 million to 1, 78 million boed.

Last week, ExxonMobil (NYSE: ) warned that a drop in oil prices would hurt its third-quarter results.

Oil prices fell 17 percent in the third quarter, the biggest quarterly drop in a year, on concerns about the outlook for global oil demand. futures settled at $71.77 a barrel on the last trading day of the quarter.