2nd November 2023, LONDON - As Shell today reports Q3 profits of £5 billion ($6 billion), new Global Witness analysis reveals how much the company has paid shareholders since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Since April 2022, a month after the invasion, Shell has paid dividends of £9.5 billion ($11.6 billion) and repurchased shares worth £21 billion ($25.6 billion), giving shareholders a total of £30.5 billion ($37.3 billion).
Shell’s shareholder pay-outs since the start of the full-scale invasion could have bought every Londoner needing an ULEZ-compliant car a new electric vehicle and still left shareholders £10 billion.
Jonathan Noronha-Gant, Global Witness, Senior Campaigner, said:
‘’Shell’s shareholders remain some of the biggest winners of Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine and ongoing global instability. The turmoil in fossil fuel markets allows Shell to rake in enormous profits – but instead of investing in clean energy, the company has doubled down on oil, gas, and shareholder pay-outs.’’
Note to Editors:
- Underlying data and calculations available upon request.
- Until Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Shell co-owned Russia’s Sakhalin gas field in Eastern Russia. The company has since written off the project, but still owns a large share. In June, Global Witness also revealed that Shell remained a key trader of Russian LNG in 2022.