This is the firm’s highest quarterly profit and its highest operating cash flow since 2022Higher oil and gas prices, stronger liquefied natural gas and oil trading and improved chemicals margins helped support the Shell’s earnings. Higher oil and gas prices, stronger LNG and oil trading and improved chemicals margins helped support the British major’s earnings, offsetting lower sales volumes caused by disruptions to its Qatar operations. Analysts had expected net profit of US$8.92 billion, according to a company-provided consensus, compared with US$4.26 billion a year earlier. Highest profit since 2022Shell reported its highest quarterly profit and its highest operating cash flow, including working-capital movements, since 2022, when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine upended global energy markets. Shell’s net debt dropped to US$41.8 billion, from US$52.6 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2026.