Shell earnings: third quarter 2026

Shell's third quarter of 2026 was far stronger than a year ago. Earnings per share were $2.15, against $0.91 a year earlier and $1.94 in the second quarter. Sales were $92.8 billion, up about 36% on the year though about 2% below the second quarter, while day-to-day costs were slightly lower than a year ago, so most of the extra sales turned into profit. Free cash flow, the cash left after running the business and investing in it, was $16.3 billion. Shell completed its purchase of the Canadian gas producer ARC Resources on 2 September, mostly paying in new shares. It warns of a large accounting charge in the fourth quarter tied to its Dutch pension fund. ¹

Against what analysts expected

Nasdaq's earnings calendar shows an average analyst forecast of $3.54 a share for the quarter from three estimates, but that figure appears to be for Shell's US-listed shares, each of which stands for two ordinary shares, while the release's $2.15 is per ordinary share, so the two cannot be set cleanly against each other. ¹²

The strong points

• Profit per share more than doubled from a year ago to $2.15, and also rose from the second quarter. ¹
• Free cash flow, the cash left after running the business and investing in it, was $16.3 billion, about 64% more than a year ago. ¹
• Over the first nine months of 2026, profit for shareholders was more than double the same period last year, at $28.6 billion. ¹

The weak points

• Shell's lease obligations, mainly for ships, grew to $34.1 billion, and the company says higher ship-hire rates linked to the Middle East conflict added $7.7 billion since December. ¹
• Share buybacks over the first nine months were about 10% below last year's pace, and new shares were issued to pay for ARC. ¹
• Sales slipped about 2% from the second quarter, to $92.8 billion. ¹

What the company expects

• For the fourth quarter, Shell expects gas production of about 1,080 to 1,180 thousand barrels of oil equivalent a day, now including a full quarter of ARC Resources. ¹
• Shell expects a one-off, non-cash charge of about $6.4 billion in the fourth quarter from moving its Dutch pension fund to a different kind of plan. ¹

Our verdict on the quarter

A strong report. Profit per share more than doubled and the cash coming in was far above last year, with only small soft spots in slower buybacks and growing ship-lease bills; Shell gave no full-year profit or sales forecast to show whether its own expectations moved.

The results as published

• The results release itself
• The filing it came with (SEC)

Notes

1. Shell's results release, 29 October 2026: sec.gov. ↩
2. Nasdaq's earnings calendar, 29 October 2026. ↩