Marketplace®

Daily business news and economic stories

Oil giant Shell has a nasty surprise for the markets

The company is reporting weak profits. Shell says it was hit by higher exploration costs and lower oil and gas volumes.

Royal Dutch Shell is Europe’s biggest oil company, but had to warn the markets this morning that its profits for the fourth quarter were less than half what they were last year.

That was in an early earnings report that erased about $10 billion in shareholder value.

The BBC’s Rob Young says this isn’t good for the big man in charge. 

“It’s not a great start for Shell’s new Chief Executive Ben van Beurden. He’s only been in the job 17 days, and he says this isn’t what he expects. Shares fell four percent, wiping about $10 billion off the value of the company.”

The company issued what’s called a “profit warning” — meaning it won’t meet analyst’s expectations.

The BBC’s Rob Young, joined Marketplace’s Lizzie O’Leary to discuss. 

Related Topics

Collections:

Tagged as:

Latest Episodes

View All Shows
  • Marketplace Tech
    4 minutes ago
    11:03
  • Marketplace
    11 hours ago
    25:19
  • Make Me Smart
    17 hours ago
    19:00
  • Marketplace Morning Report
    20 hours ago
    6:55
  • This Is Uncomfortable
    3 days ago
    56:05
  • Million Bazillion
    24 days ago
    32:45