Oil major Shell expects oil and gas production across its Upstream and Integrated Gas business segments to come in slightly ahead of its previous guidance for the first three months of this year.
In a trading statement ahead of its first-quarter financial results, Shell narrowed its output guidance for the Upstream segment to 1.82 million barrels a day,-1.92mn b/d of oil equivalent (boe/d), compared to 1.73mn-1.93mn boe/d previously.
And the company now expects production from its Integrated Gas business to be within a 960,000-1mn boe/d range, compared to the 930,000-990,000 boe/d guidance it gave at the time of its full-year 2023 results in February.
The Integrated Gas segment’s LNG volumes for the first quarter are now estimated at 7.2million tons, mn t-7.6mn t, compared to 7mn-7.6mn t previously. Shell expects to report a “strong” trading and optimisation result within the Integrated Gas segment for the quarter, but it will be significantly lower than the “exceptional” result achieved in the fourth quarter of last year, it said.
Within the company’s Chemicals and Products segment, the company estimates an indicative refining margin of $12/bl for January-March, lower than the $19/bl it reported for the fourth quarter of 2023.
It expects to report refinery utilisation at 89pc-93pc, compared to previous guidance of 83pc-91pc. Chemicals utilisation is now expected at 71pc-75pc against 68pc-76pc previously.
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