Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Giacomo Romeo: Congratulations, Wael, for your excellent start of the new tenure here as CEO. Two questions left. First one is on Chemicals. We have seen a disappointing numbers and losses getting larger. Just wanted to understand whether there’s anything you can do there on the cost side to mitigate some of these effects and whether what you’re seeing in terms of the market right now if you start to see a little bit of an improvement. The second question is on liquefaction. You give us a liquefaction guidance for the first quarter. And it looks just over the — what you reported for this — for Q4, and it’s — which was a quarter where you had quite a bit of hiccups. So I’m just wondering what shall we expect in terms of if this range you give for first quarter, it should be a reliable level of liquefaction that we can apply for the following quarters in 2023 or whether we could see an improvement there.

Wael Sawan: Thank you very much, Giacomo. Do you want to talk about liquefaction? I can touch on Chemicals.

Sinead Gorman: Sure. I’ll be very short on the liquefaction. We put it out quarter-to-quarter, of course, because it is the best estimate that we have at the time, Giacomo. So it’s a good estimate for where we are seeing for Q1. We obviously have a different phasing for turnarounds, et cetera. We don’t tend to bring — go out with those in advance. So you’ll see that play out over the year as it’s phased. But what you’re seeing is a very good estimate for Q1.

Wael Sawan: Thanks, Sinead. And Giacomo, with your question around Chemicals. I think there’s a couple of things that we’re looking at. Firstly, of course, we’re at the bottom of the cycle on Chemicals. So it’s painful where we are, but this is a cyclical sector, of course. The structural, there’s little we can do about at this stage. The performance we’re very focused on. So indeed, we’re looking at all opportunities to be able to pull levers that we can, whether that’s from a cost perspective or how do we enhance the top line. That’s what the team is focused on and continuing to drive hard at the moment. In addition to that, we continue to play out the strategy that we have, which is shifting more and more away from commodity chemicals to intermediate and to performance chemicals.

That’s an important part of it, and we have some good opportunities to continue to do that. Earlier, we talked about Shell Polymers Monaca. The whole point of continuing to certify these 40 grades is to continue to actually add value to the molecules we have and to the pellets we have and to be able to make sure that we maximize the return that we get from selling those. So all sorts of ideas being worked to ensure that we counter the cyclicality and are ready when we start to move back up the cycle to be able to maximize value for our shareholders from that. Thank you, Giacomo, for the question.

Operator: The next question is from Peter Low at Redburn.

Peter Low: Just one and one more on Integrated Gas. Clearly, a very strong result. Is say to help us try and quantify the contribution from trading and optimization. I guess what I’m trying to gauge to what extent this was an exceptional quarter versus being within the range of normal volatility you actually expect within that business. So yes, any color around that would be very helpful.

Wael Sawan: Okay. Thank you for that, as well, Peter. Do you want to say a word on that?

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