Oil company Shell recorded a quadrupling of yearly profits as oil and gas prices reached peak levels, leading the company to buy back shares and increase shareholder dividends. “2021 was a momentous year for Shell,” said company CEO Ben van Beurden in the earnings report published Feb. 3. “Progress made in 2021 will enable us to be bolder and move faster.” “We delivered very strong financial performance in 2021, and our financial strength and discipline underpin the transformation of our company. Today we are stepping up our distributions with the announcement of an $8.5 billion share buyback programme and we expect to increase our dividend per share by around 4% for Q1 2022.” The adjusted earnings for Q4 2021 was $6.39 billion, an increase of over 50 percent over $4.13 billion in the third quarter. For the full year 2021, the adjusted earnings came to $19.29 billion, a 300-percent jump …