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Shell PLC
SHEL,
on Thursday forecast improved production from its integrated gas-and-oil products division in the first quarter of 2023 with higher liquid natural gas liquefaction volumes, though it expects corporate adjusted losses to widen.
The oil-and-gas company said it expects integrated gas production of between 930,000 and 970,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day, up from 917,000 in the fourth quarter of 2022. Liquid natural gas liquefaction volumes are expected to improve to 7.0 million-7.4 million from 6.8 million, on higher uptime at Prelude and QGC in Australia.
Shell expects a first-quarter pretax depreciation for integrated gas of between $1.2 billion and $1.6 billion. Trading and optimization results for the segment are expected to be similar to the fourth quarter of 2022.
On a corporate level, the company expects to post a widened adjusted earnings loss of between $0.9 billion and $1.2 billion for the first quarter, from $0.6 billion in the preceding quarter. It attributed the increased loss to one-off tax charges.
However, for the group as a whole, it expects to pay $2.6 billion to $3.4 billion in tax, down from $4.4 billion in the fourth quarter.
Upstream production is expected to be between 1.8 million and 1.9 million barrels of oil equivalent a day, from 1.86 million in the prior quarter, and it expects a pretax depreciation of between $2.8 billion and $3.1 billion.
In the chemicals and products division, the indicative refining margin is set to be $15 a barrel compared with $19 a barrel in the prior quarter. The indicative chemicals margin is expected to greatly increase to $140 a ton from $37 a ton.
Marketing results are expected to be higher than in the fourth quarter, with oil products sales volumes expected to reach between 2.25 million and 2.65 million barrels of oil a day, the company said.
The renewables and energy solutions unit is also expected to post adjusted earnings of around $100 million to $700 million compared with around $300 million in the fourth quarter.
Write to Joe Hoppe at joseph.hoppe@wsj.com
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