Shell’s results clearly beat BP’s but both oil firms need better crude prices: ProactiveInvestors Stocktube

ProactiveInvestors Stocktube

Published on Nov 1, 2016

Royal Dutch Shell Plc (LON:RDSB) emerged as the obvious winner on ‘super Tuesday’ as the oil supermajor and its rival BP Plc (LON:BP) both released their figures for the most recent quarter, but according to Jasper Lawler, analyst at CMC Markets, both companies need better oil prices.

In an interview, Lawler said: “US$50 per barrel is clearly a lot better than US$27 but it is still not enough to take these companies anywhere close to where they were before the downturn.”

Nonetheless, the analyst notes that Shell is now seeing something of an inflection point.

“They’ve managed to see some profit growth after a couple of years of really tough times,” he said.
But turning attentions to BP, Lawler said: “BP is still suffering from their legacy of the Deepwater Horizon, it has had its final settlement there but it is still knocking onto costs each quarter,”

He added: “obviously the low oil price is hurting the upstream business as it is at Shell, but the refining margins are hurting the downstream business as well.