Royal Dutch Shell PLC posted 18 percent upsurge in the second quarter, apparently boosted by the asset sales and increases margins at oil refineries. Shell’s net profit surged to $8.67 billion, which is a record for quarterly earnings in comparison to $7.32 billion of last year, wherein shell’s sales rose by 2.2 percent to $84.9 billion. The surge was mainly due to the asset sales and strong earnings from oil refining as with asset sales and other benefits, Shell’s income surged to $660 million compared to the $232 million in the same quarter a year ago. Refining earnings jumped to $3.92 from $3.02 billion. However, the company’s combined gas and oil production fell 17 percent to $3.30 billion, as production fell to 3.18 million barrels of oil from 3.25 million per day and Shell’s selling price per barrel dipped to $63.92 from $63.95. The drop in gas and oil production was due to ongoing security threat in Nigeria’s oil reserves, where militants have attacked facilities and kidnapped workers thus forcing Shell to shut down operations. Civil unrest in Nigeria has left Shell without 195,000 barrels of oil. Nevertheless, new refineries helped Shell to maintain its profit sequel as company posted 6th straight profitable quarter. Buoyant with the results, the Dutch driller is hoping to fix a deal with BP, but at this time it doesn’t seems to start. Company is also in a fix, whether it should develop a major liquid natural gas project in Iran, owing to mounting pressure from the U.S. for not to do the business with the country as long as it goes ahead with nuclear enrichment. Image Via: Guardian