Ron Bousso

LONDON (Reuters] – Shell (LON 🙂 said Thursday it would write off up to $5Billion as a result of its decision to leave Russia. The company disclosed that this was more than what had been previously revealed. Meanwhile, record oil and gas prices boosted trading in the quarter.

Shell informed shareholders that post-tax impairments of $4 billion to $5B in the quarter’s first quarter would not have an impact on the earnings of the company in an update before its earnings announcement.

Shell has a market capitalization of approximately $210 billion. It had earlier stated that Russia writedowns will reach $3.4 million. A Shell spokesperson stated that the additional impacts of Russia’s contracts, receivable writedowns and credit loss in Russia were responsible for this increase.

Shell shares fell 1.2% during London trading.

It was a turbulent period for the oil-and gas industry. Shell and other Western companies quickly left Russia after the invasion of Ukraine.

Shell announced that it would exit Russian operations including the Sakhalin Peninsula in the east flank.

Shell didn’t provide any direction on how it would proceed with its Russian investments.

The average benchmark oil price rose to more than $100 per barrel during the quarter. European gas prices reached a new record high.

Numerous traders have been forced to make drastic adjustments to their oil and LNG downpayments due to extreme volatility in commodities prices.

Shell, which is the largest trader of liquefied natural gasoline, announced that it expects earnings from LNG trading to increase in the current quarter, compared with three previous months. Oil trading is set to earn “significantly” more in this quarter.

Changes in the oil and gas inventory values would negatively impact cashflow.

Shell reported that Shell sold 4.3 million barrels of fuel per day during the quarter. This is down from the 4.45 million bpd recorded in the prior quarter. Average 8 million tonnes of LNG liquefaction volumes was slightly more in the third quarter.