LONDON—Shell said on Thursday its third-quarter profit would be pressured by a near halving of oil refining margins, crumbling chemical margins, and weaker natural gas trading.
The British energy giant reported two consecutive quarters of record profit in the first half of the year amid soaring oil and gas prices, and stellar earnings from its trading operations, the world’s biggest.
Its shares were down 4.3 percent by 0847 GMT, compared with a 1 percent decline for the broader European energy sector.
But in the third quarter, indicative refining margins dropped to $15 a barrel compared with $28 a barrel in the previous three months, Shell said in an update ahead of its results on Oct. 27, amid growing concerns over a global economic slowdown….