Shell reported $10.814 billion in third-quarter adjusted earnings as refinery margins reached a record, while the International Energy Agency (IEA) said diesel prices were adding to goods costs and squeezing real incomes.
The July-September total was almost twice the $5.432 billion from the same quarter of 2025 and above $9.836 billion in the second quarter of 2026. Income attributable to shareholders totaled $12.057 billion. Shell reports adjusted earnings separately from that figure; its non-GAAP measure removes inventory accounting effects and identified items.
Shell's Chemicals and Products segment posted $3.855 billion in adjusted earnings, including $3.751 billion from Products and $103 million from Chemicals. The company's global indicative refining margin reached $42 per barrel, up from $24 in the second quarter. That figure matched Shell's earlier refining outlook. Shell said higher refining margins were the main driver of a $1.065 billion increase in Products margins from the prior quarter.
Higher realized liquefied natural gas prices and greater Integrated Gas volumes also supported earnings compared with the second quarter, Shell said. Lower trading results, higher well write-offs and weaker realized liquids prices partly offset those gains.
The IEA put September's North Sea Dated crude price at $116.89 per barrel, following a $26.17 monthly increase. It linked supply interruptions amid renewed Middle East hostilities and faster buying by Asian refiners to the market's price pressures. The agency said refined fuels became more expensive relative to crude, supporting unusually strong refinery margins; Atlantic Basin diesel and jet-fuel spreads reached records.
The IEA said record diesel prices were increasing goods costs, eroding real incomes and fueling inflation. The End Fuel Poverty Coalition argued that households faced higher energy costs as company earnings rose. Simon Francis, the coalition's coordinator, said, “Shell earns more in sixty seconds than most people in this country manage in twelve months.”
Shell announced a $5 billion share buyback program and said it expected to complete it by its fourth-quarter results announcement, scheduled for Feb. 4, 2027.
