Shell's Continued Cost-Cutting

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It occasionally seems that, despite their diversity, the members of Big Oil travel in a pack. During earnings season, once one has reported, you can pretty much guess how the others will come in.

But not this time around. In an earnings season that has been rough on most of the integrateds, Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-A) (NYSE: RDS-B) and BP (NYSE: BP), the two largest European oil companies, were clearly at odds. BP led off the group with a performance that was surprisingly strong, while Shell, if not bringing up the rear, clearly didn't set investors' hearts aflutter.

Shell's earnings came in at $3.25 billion, clearly a slide from last year's comparable quarter, when it earned $8.45 billion. At the same time, its cash flow from operations was $7.3 billion, versus $12.6 billion in the same quarter of 2008.

Nevertheless, the company continues to chug along. Its upstream earnings were $1.54 billion, down sharply from the $8.65 billion it generated a year ago. But to be fair, last year's number was not only influenced by higher oil and natural gas prices, but also included a net gain of $2.37 billion, while the most recent quarter was reduced by a $123 million charge. The company's total production was roughly flat with the same quarter a year ago, down some 2%. Its downstream earnings were 47% lower, as the same margin shrinkage that hit other refiners affected Shell.

But perhaps things just appeared worse than they were because, lumped in with the financial release, was the news that the company will bid adieu to 5,000 employees and force another 15,000 to apply to stay with the company, moves that seem a little late. Operational cost-cutting has yielded $1 billion in savings through the first three quarters of the year, but it appears that Shell thinks it has more fat to trim.

Among the company's accomplishments in the quarter was participation in Russia's Sakhalin-2 LNG production ramp-up. Shell, which owns 27.5% of the project, was the operator until two and a half years ago, when it was pressured from that role by Russian authorities and sold controlling interest to Gazprom. In the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, Shell participated in the discovery of the Vito well with the likes of Anadarko (NYSE: APC) and StatoilHydro (NYSE: STO). And in western Australia, Shell has been working with Chevron (NYSE: CVX) and ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) on the huge Gorgon LNG project.

So from my vantage point, Shell's quarter was something of a mixed bag. At the same time, the company is operating under the leadership of still-new CEO Peter Voser, who hasn't had time to work his magic. Until he does, I wouldn't be shelling out shekels for the company's shares.

In the world of Motley Fool CAPS, Royal Dutch Shell is rated a four-star company (out of five). Would you differ from that assessment? Why not head for the company's CAPS page and register your thinking?