SHEL Shell Plc

By Jaime Llinares Taboada

Royal Dutch Shell PLC on Thursday said that it is cutting its first-quarter dividend, as earnings for the period were dragged down by the collapse in oil and gas demand and prices.

The British-Dutch oil giant said its profit for the three months ended March. 31 on a net current cost of supplies basis--a figure similar to the net income that U.S. oil companies report--fell to $2.76 billion from $5.29 billion a year earlier. Net profit swung to a $24 million loss from a $6.00 billion profit.

The company declared an interim dividend of $0.16 per share, down from $0.47 a year earlier.

"Given the risk of a prolonged period of economic uncertainty, weaker commodity prices, higher volatility and uncertain demand outlook, the board believes that maintaining the current level of shareholder distributions is not prudent", Chairman Chad Holliday said.

Adjusted net CCS earnings, which excludes certain items and is Shell's preferred metric, came in at $2.86 billion, down from $5.30 billion in January-March 2019 but above the $2.25 billion consensus estimate compiled by Vara Research and based on 27 brokers' forecasts.

Revenue decreased 28% to $60.0 billion. Cash flow from operations was up 72% at $14.9 billion.

Shell's performance was significantly dragged by its upstream business, with earnings including one-off items and impairments swinging to a loss of $863 million.

Capital expenditure was $4.97 billion in the quarter, down from $5.60 billion a year earlier. Shell said last month that it intends to reduce 2020 capital expenditure below $20 billion, from the original $25 billion plan.

Write to Jaime Llinares Taboada at jaime.llinares@wsj.com; @JaimeLlinaresT

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 30, 2020 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)

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