Shell’s Q2 2026 earnings reached $9.8bn, the second-highest quarterly figure in the company’s history, as disruption to oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz drove prices and trading margins sharply higher. The result beat analyst consensus of $8.9bn, according to Peter Lewis Money Talk, and more than doubled the $4.3bn posted in Q2 2025.
Shares rose 2% to 3,376.00p in early London trading. Shell said it would maintain its $3bn quarterly share buyback programme.
Shell Q2 2026 Earnings: The Numbers Behind the Beat
Revenue surged 45% to $94.7bn in the quarter, while income attributable to shareholders came in at $10.8bn, up 196% from $3.6bn in Q2 2025, Yahoo Finance reported.
Adjusted EBITDA rose 56% to $20.7bn from $13.3bn a year earlier. Cash flow from operating activities reached $21.4bn, an 80% increase from $11.9bn in Q2 2025, with free cash flow climbing to $17.5bn from $6.5bn in the same period.
The only quarterly result to surpass these earnings was Shell’s $11.5bn in 2022, when Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine triggered a European energy crisis.
Chief executive Wael Sawan said there was ‘severe disruption in global energy markets’ following the Iran war. ‘Volatility is the new normal,’ Sawan told CNBC. ‘What we have been trying to build is a company that is able to thrive through volatility… the macro is such that the commodity prices are high and that provides a very strong tailwind for our results.’
Hormuz Closure and the Brent Crude Spike
Brent crude hit $126 a barrel at the end of April after Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz following the outbreak of war in late February. The narrow waterway connects the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman and is a critical route for global oil exports.
Tensions have since resurfaced. Peace talks broke down last week, pushing Brent back above $90. A drone strike on two ships at Egypt’s Mediterranean port of Damietta, the first such incident in Egyptian waters since the conflict began, pushed Brent briefly above $93, Peter Lewis Money Talk reported. The attack raised questions about whether the Suez Canal offers a viable alternative export route.
Shell also delivered $700m of cost reductions in the first half of 2026, bringing cumulative savings to $5.8bn since 2022, according to Theodosian Capital.
Pearl GTL Damage Weighs on Gas Output
The conflict imposed direct costs on Shell’s production. The integrated gas division reported a 30% drop in output compared with Q2 2025, with Shell’s Pearl gas-to-liquids facility in Qatar at the centre of the disruption.
One of Pearl’s two trains was damaged in a missile strike on 18 March 2026, with Shell estimating repairs will take around one year, according to the Shell newsroom. The facility, in which Shell holds a 100% interest, has capacity to process 1.6 billion cubic feet of wellhead gas per day and produce 140,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. No damage was confirmed to the second train.
A fire broke out at the Pearl site at Ras Laffan Industrial City during the attack but was quickly extinguished, with no reported injuries, Reuters reported. LNG production at Shell’s Qatari facilities has also been offline since early March.
Prior to the attack, Pearl had already been running at reduced rates, with exports constrained by the Strait of Hormuz blockage.
With one Pearl train facing up to a year of repairs and Brent hovering above $90 on renewed geopolitical risk, the scale of Shell’s gas production recovery will depend heavily on whether a ceasefire materialises before year-end.
