Shell and Bp deepen response to pressures

摘要

Shell and BP are taking further steps to deal with short and long-term pressures caused by Covid-19 and the energy transition. Shell has followed BP in announcing hefty impairment charges in its upcoming second-quarter results, after lowering its outlook for oil and gas prices. It expects to write down the value of “a signifcant portion of Shell’s upstream, integrated gas and refning tangible and intangible assets” by $15bn-22bn on a post-tax basis. The frm expects the impairments to push its net debt gearing up by 3 percentage points — this stood at about 29pc at the end of March. The impairments are being triggered not only by a revision to Shell’s oil and gas price assumptions, but also by a cut to its outlook on longer-term refning margins of about 30pc. The write-downs are on a similar scale to the $13bn-17.5bn fagged by BP . They could mean that the companies are unlikely to develop some of their oil and gas resources.