Royal Dutch Shell ( NYSE: RDS.A ), one of the last supermajors to report Q1 earnings, was the one that stood out among the crowd with better-than-expected results, as its trading and natural gas businesses offset weak oil prices and depressed refining margins that plagued the other majors this earnings season. Shell reported on Thursday earnings on a current cost of supplies (CCS) basis—its closest metric to a net profit closely watched by analysts—of US$5.3 billion in the first quarter this year, down by 2 percent annually, but beating by a lot the consensus forecast of US$4.5 billion . While Shell’s profits were hit by lower chemicals and refining margins and lower realized oil prices—the factors that weighed on all supermajors in Q1—the Anglo-Dutch group reported stronger contributions from its trading division and higher realized liquefied natural gas (LNG) and gas prices compared to the first quarter of 2018. […]