Shell CEO on 4th-Qtr Profit, Strategy and Globalization Royal Dutch Shell Plc reported fourth-quarter profit that missed analyst estimates after crude’s recovery drove up costs for refining while earnings from production did little more than break even. Profit adjusted for one-time items and inventory changes totaled $1.8 billion, a billion dollars short of analyst estimates. The upstream, downstream and integrated-gas business units all missed company forecasts. Shell barely made any money from refining and trading: just $77 million, down 90 percent. Ben van Beurden, Royal Dutch Shell chief executive officer, discusses the company’s fourth-quarter earnings. Major oil companies are facing a complicated time. Crude prices have recovered, but only enough to push Shell’s exploration and production business back into the black, compared with a billion-dollar loss a year ago. At the same time, the rising cost of oil has hurt profit […]