Rockwell Advisors: Royal Dutch Shell and Statoil profits leap on stronger oil price.

Oct. 27, 2011 - PRLog -- Europe's largest oil company by market capitalization, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, has told Rockwell Advisors that its underlying current cost of supply (CCS) net income in third quarter, excluding one-offs, rocketed 42% to $7.0 billion.

Statoil informed us that its adjusted net income, calculated on the same basis as that of Shells, shot up 50% in dollar terms to $2.07 billion in the third quarter.

Both firms’ earnings were close to most analysts expectations.

Exxon Mobil, the world's largest publicly-traded oil company, is expected to shortly report a 40% leap in third-quarter net income to $10.26 billion, according to I/B/E/S estimates.

Shells CEO Peter Voser said the company’s massive investments in big new projects were starting to pay off, pointing to growth in underlying production, although field sales pushed headline production down 2% to 3.01 million barrels of oil equivalent (boepd).

Industry analysts felt that Shell was entering a "sweet spot" of strong cash flow as a result of its Athabasca oil sands project in Canada, and its Pearl gas-to-liquids and Qatargas liquefied natural gas operations in Qatar.

"The 'big 3' projects are delivering less than 50% plateau production and Qatar less than 50% of plateau cash flows, hence significant momentum remains," Jon Rigby, an oil industry analyst told Rockwell Advisors.

Similarly, Statoil announced that its output - boosted by a revitalization of exploration and production in the Norwegian North Sea - climbed 14% in the quarter compared with the same period in 201, to 1.57 million boepd.

However, Statoil still expects its output to be down slightly this year, before rising next year.

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