Shell to hand investors bigger payouts despite continued fall in profits
Shell has said it will continue to hand investors bumper payouts despite reporting its third consecutive year of falling profits following weaker oil prices.The oil company reported a 22% fall in adjusted earnings to $18.5bn (£13.6bn) for 2025, down from $23.7bn in 2024, owing to steadily falling global oil market prices.
It is the third year in a row that the company has reported falling profits since making almost $40bn during the 2022 energy crisis.Shell’s earnings for the last quarter of the year were $3.25bn, missing analyst expectations of $3.5bn and well below the $5.4bn reported for the previous three months.
Despite the weaker profits the company handed its shareholders a 4% increase in dividends and $3.5bn worth of share buybacks – its 17th consecutive quarter of at least $3bn of buybacks.Meanwhile, its net debt climbed to $45.7bn by the end of the year, or almost 21% of its total capital, up from $41.2bn at the end of September, as oil prices continued to slide.
The international price for crude fell below $60 a barrel for the first time in almost five years at the end of 2025 as political leaders began to inch towards a Russia-Ukraine peace deal, which could increase the glut in the global market if western sanctions were lifted on Russian exports.Overall, oil prices slumped by almost 20% in 2025, marking the biggest annual loss since the Covid pandemic, and the first time that the oil market has recorded three consecutive years of annual losses.Wael Sawan, Shell’s chief executive, said the year showed “accelerated momentum” for the business, with “strong operational and financial performance across Shell”.“We generated free cashflow of $26bn, made significant progress in focusing our portfolio and reached $5bn of cost savings since 2022, with more to come,” Sawan added.Shell’s lucrative investor payouts have continued despite the falling oil price and as the company reportedly consults with shareholders over plans to increase Sawan’s pay packet by at least £4.
6m a year alongside one of the most generous long-term incentive plans in the FTSE 100.Mark van Baal, founder of the activist shareholder group Follow This, said Shell’s steadily declining profits despite rising global oil and gas demand had exposed “weakening fossil fuel economics” in the energy sector.“We expect that every shareholder wants to know how the company will create shareholder value in a declining oil and gas market,” he said.“Even shareholders who don’t care about climate risk and only care about the value of their shares in Shell should be worried about Shell’s stubborn disregard of market forces such as the exponential growth of renewable energy and electric vehicles.”Shell also attracted criticism from green groups.
Fossil Free London staged a mock “profits party” protest outside Shell’s headquarters yesterday where it accused the company of fuelling the climate crisis in pursuit of profit.Maja Darlington, a climate campaigner for Greenpeace, said the oil company’s profits “could cover the UK’s £2.8bn climate damage bill from floods, fires, storms and droughts almost five times over”.“It is reprehensible that Shell is allowed to act with impunity.Governments must make these oil giants pay for the climate chaos they have created,” Darlington added.
Six Nations 2026 predictions: our writers on who will win and why
England have the squad depth, but France have a returning hero and hosting duties for the potentially decisive finaleWhat are you most looking forward to? Let’s hope it stops raining at some stage. Because if Matthieu Jalibert, Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Henry Arundell, Manny Feyi-Waboso, Louis Rees-Zammit et al have a licence to thrill with a dry ball this could be an eye-catching championship.Who is going to win and why? France. Three home games, the world’s best player fit again, big forwards, highly promising youngsters, and England haven’t won the title in the season after a British & Irish Lions tour since 1963.Predicted finishing order France, England, Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Wales
Winter Olympics 2026: all your questions about the Milano Cortina Games, answered
The Winter Olympics are back – and this time they’re zigzagging across northern Italy. Milano Cortina 2026 will be the most spread-out Winter Games ever staged, jumping from Milan’s arenas to the Dolomites’ classic Alpine slopes. With returning superstars, brand-new events and Italy leaning hard into its Olympic heritage, these Games may feel like they’ve arrived quietly – but there is a lot going on. From how and when to watch, to who matters and why these Olympics could look very different, here are your most pressing questions answered.Yes
Winter Olympics briefing: curling subplots abound as lights go out on first action
Curling fans, rejoice! It is only fitting that the one sport played every single day of the Winter Olympics is the one that opens proceedings at Milano Cortina. Dubbed “chess on ice”, curling may not have the brute force of ice hockey or the airtime of snowboarding, but it is a huge test in precision, patience and handling pressure.Enter mixed doubles, which has its own subplot straight out of a romcom, with husband-and-wife pairings representing Norway, Canada and Switzerland. Norway’s Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten came up against familiar foes on Wednesday, having edged Great Britain’s Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat in a semi-final thriller at Beijing 2022, sealing victory with the last stone.In the much-lower stakes rematch, Dodds and Mouat saw out a 8-6 victory to give Team GB a winning start to their Olympics
Hilary Knight, Team USA’s north star, chases one more Olympic hockey gold
The five-time Olympian leads a young US team into Milan after nearly two decades at the vanguard of women’s hockey’s rise and transformationFor nearly two decades, Hilary Knight has been the heartbeat of USA women’s ice hockey – the constant through gold-medal ecstasy and silver-medal heartbreaks, coaching changes, domestic league collapses and the sport’s long, uneven push toward professional stability. Now, at 36, she’s arrived in Milan chasing one more Olympic gold before bringing down the curtain on one of the most influential careers the game has known.The Olympic women’s hockey tournament opens on Thursday with the United States bringing one of their youngest and fastest teams in years – and their longest-tenured player in the captain’s sweater. Only 11 players return from the team that won silver in Beijing four years ago. Seven are still in college
Lando Norris driven to defend F1 title but says he has ‘different mentality to Max’
Lando Norris insists he enters the new Formula One season highly motivated to retain the world championship he won for the first time last year. The McLaren driver believes his maiden triumph has only given him greater confidence in his ability to defend the title.Norris won the championship after an intense competition that went to the wire. After a three-way fight with his teammate, Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, Norris sealed the title by just two points at the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi.The British driver has always been open about his approach to racing and admitted that while he had already achieved his lifelong dream, that achievement did not blunt his determination to take another championship
Welcome to new cold war as world descends on Italy amid global political chaos
A short stroll from where the grandees of the International Olympic Committee are staying in Milan sits the Museum of Illusions – a place devoted to magic and misdirection. Mirrors distort. Perspectives shift. And nothing is quite what it seems. It is an apposite metaphor for these Winter Olympics, which officially open in Italy on Friday
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