Shell plc (LON:SHEL) has announced its 1st quarter 2026 unaudited results.
| SUMMARY OF UNAUDITED RESULTS | ||||||||||||||
| Quarters | $ million | |||||||||||||
| Q1 2026 | Q4 2025 | Q1 2025 | Reference | |||||||||||
| 5,694 | 4,134 | 4,780 | Income attributable to Shell plc shareholders | |||||||||||
| 6,915 | 3,256 | 5,577 | Adjusted Earnings | A. | ||||||||||
| 17,741 | 12,799 | 15,250 | Adjusted EBITDA | A. | ||||||||||
| 6,062 | 9,438 | 9,281 | Cash flow from operating activities | |||||||||||
| (3,136) | (5,190) | (3,959) | Cash flow from investing activities | |||||||||||
| 2,927 | 4,249 | 5,322 | Free cash flow | G. | ||||||||||
| 4,202 | 6,015 | 4,175 | Cash capital expenditure | C. | ||||||||||
| 8,716 | 9,559 | 8,575 | Operating expenses | F. | ||||||||||
| 8,585 | 9,436 | 8,453 | Underlying operating expenses | F. | ||||||||||
| 9.9% | 9.4% | 10.4% | ROACE | D. | ||||||||||
| 75,645 | 75,643 | 76,511 | Total debt | E. | ||||||||||
| 52,606 | 45,687 | 41,521 | Net debt | E. | ||||||||||
| 23.2% | 20.7% | 18.7% | Gearing | E. | ||||||||||
| 2,752 | 2,859 | 2,838 | Oil and gas production available for sale (thousand boe/d) | |||||||||||
| 1.01 | 0.72 | 0.79 | Basic earnings per share ($) | |||||||||||
| 1.22 | 0.57 | 0.92 | Adjusted Earnings per share ($) | B. | ||||||||||
| 0.3906 | 0.3720 | 0.3580 | Dividend per share ($) | |||||||||||
Quarter Analysis1
Income attributable to Shell plc shareholderswas driven by the same factors as Adjusted Earnings and includes the impact of identified items and a current cost of supplies adjustment of $1.2 billion.
Adjusted Earnings, compared with the fourth quarter 2025, reflected higher contributions from trading and optimisation mainly impacting our Downstream, Renewables and Energy Solutions businesses, higher realised prices, higher refining margins, lower operating expenses and higher Lubricants margins, partly offset by lower volumes.
Identified items in the first quarter 2026 amounted to a net loss of $2.4 billion and included unfavourable movements due to the fair value accounting of commodity derivatives. This compares with identified items in the fourth quarter 2025 which amounted to a net gain of $1.2 billion.
Adjusted EBITDAwas driven by the same factors as Adjusted Earnings.
Cash flow from operating activities for the first quarter 2026 was $6.1 billion, and primarily driven by Adjusted EBITDA, the non-cash cost of supplies adjustment of $1.7 billion (before tax) and net cash inflows related to the timing impact of payments for emission certificates and biofuel programmes of $1.3 billion. These were partly offset by working capital outflows of $11.2 billion and tax payments of $2.3 billion. The working capital outflows mainly reflected the impact of commodity prices on inventory and accounts receivables.
Cash flow from investing activities for the first quarter 2026 was an outflow of $3.1 billion, and included cash capital expenditure of $4.2 billion, partly offset by interest received of $0.4 billion and divestment proceeds of $0.4 billion.
Net debt and Gearing: At the end of the first quarter 2026, net debt was $52.6 billion, compared with $45.7 billion at the end of the fourth quarter 2025. This reflects free cash flow of $2.9 billion, more than offset by lease liability increases of $3.9 billion2, share buybacks of $3.2 billion, cash dividends paid to Shell plc shareholders of $2.1 billion and interest payments of $1.0 billion. Gearing was 23.2% at the end of the first quarter 2026, compared with 20.7% at the end of the fourth quarter 2025, mainly driven by higher net debt.
1st QUARTER 2026 UNAUDITED RESULTS
Shareholder distributions: Total shareholder distributions in the quarter amounted to $5.3 billion, comprising repurchases of shares of $3.2 billion and cash dividends paid to Shell plc shareholders of $2.1 billion. Dividends declared to Shell plc shareholders for the first quarter 2026 amount to $0.3906 per share. Shell has now completed the $3.5 billion of share buybacks announced in the fourth quarter 2025 results announcement. Today, Shell announces a share buyback programme of $3.0 billion which is expected to be completed by the second quarter 2026 results announcement.3
This Unaudited Condensed Financial Report, together with supplementary financial and operational disclosure for this quarter, is available at www.shell.com/investors 4 .
1.All earnings amounts are shown post-tax, unless stated otherwise.
2.Includes a non-cash increase of $3.2 billion in the variable component of shipping leases in the current macro environment. See Note 7 “Other notes to the unaudited Condensed Consolidated Interim Financial Statements” for further details.
3.Given the securities law requirements that apply to Shell plc in connection with its agreement to acquire ARC Resources Ltd. (“ARC”), it will be necessary to suspend the programme from the time of publication of the ARC shareholder circular until the conclusion of the ARC shareholder meeting. Any buybacks not undertaken due to such suspension will be part of the remaining 2026 programmes (subject to Board approval).
4.Not incorporated by reference.
PORTFOLIO DEVELOPMENTS
Integrated Gas
In April 2026, we entered into a definitive agreement to acquire ARC Resources Ltd. (“ARC”), an energy company focused on the Montney shale basin in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada. Under the terms of the agreement, ARC’s shareholders will receive CAD 8.20 in cash and 0.40247 ordinary shares of Shell plc for each ARC share, resulting in an equity value of approximately USD 13.6 billion.1 The boards of both companies have unanimously supported the transaction, which is expected to close in the second half of 2026, subject to ARC shareholder, court and regulatory approvals.
Marketing
In March 2026, we entered into an agreement to sell Jiffy Lube International to an affiliate of Monomoy Capital Partners (Monomoy) for $1.3 billion. As part of the agreement, we entered into a long-term lubricants supply agreement with Monomoy. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and closing conditions, and is expected to close in the second half of 2026.
1. Based on Shell’s closing share price at April 24, 2026 of GBP 33.08 and GBP:CAD exchange ratio of 1.8480.
