In a rare insight into the trade earnings of British multinational oil and gas company Shell plc, a testimony by a former employee revealed the massive profits of the company’s crude trading.
Eva-Maria Frohn, a former trading manager, sued Shell in a Texas state court, alleging that the company had breached its contract with her, seeking $15 million. Last Tuesday, however, Frohn’s claim was dismissed in its entirety by the jury.
But before that could happen, a former head of Shell’s US crude trading group who was with Shell for 11 years, John Dimech had to deliver a testimony, as Reuters reports.
It is Dimech’s deposition that provides a unique perspective into Shell’s trading business. The deposition reveals that Shell earns roughly $1 billion in United States dollars each year in its crude trading of oil and natural gas, typically landing somewhere between $950 million and $1 billion in an average year.
The earnings amount to around 14% of Shell's total profits in the U.S. before taxes.
In the early hours of trading on Tuesday, April 29, Shell’s American stock took a slight dip of roughly 0.80% after having surged around 10% year-to-date.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil, one of the main benchmarks in oil pricing, has seen a modest decline in the last month of 4.68%, but stands strong at a 14.17% increase year-to-date and a 13.82% increase since this time last year.