Oil major Shell vows to boost shareholder returns, doubles down on LNG push

British oil major Shell on Tuesday announced plans to increase shareholder returns and cut spend, as it doubles down on its liquified natural gas (LNG) push.

In an announcement ahead of its Capital Markets Day 2025 event, the company said it would bolster shareholder distributions to 40-50% of cash flow from operations, up from a 30-40% range previously. It intends to stick to progressive dividends of 4% per year and to grow free cash flow per share by more than a yearly 10% through to 2030.

The oil major also said it will lower its spending to $20-22 billion per year through to 2028, after targeting such costs in a $22-25 billion range for 2024 and 2025 back in 2023.

The oil company separately said it aims to trim its structural cost reduction target from $2-3 billion by the end of this year to a cumulative $5-7 billion by the end of the three-year stretch to the end of 2028, compared with 2022 plans.

Shell — the world’s largest liquified natural gas trader — guided it will grow output across its combined upstream and integrated gas businesses by 1% per year through to 2030, as well as increase LNG sales by 4-5% every year through that period. It will separately keep its oil production steady at 1.4 million barrels per day until the end of the decade.

The company intends to expend 10% of its capital in low-carbon businesses by 2030.

”We want to become the world’s leading integrated gas and LNG business and the most customer-focused energy marketer and trader, while sustaining a material level of liquids production. Today we are raising the bar across our key financial targets, investing where we have competitive strengths and delivering more for our shareholders,” CEO Wael Sawan said in a Tuesday statement.

European oil companies have increasingly battled pressure to review their portfolio strategy in a bid to lock step with shareholder returns offered by majors in the U.S., where White House leader Donald Trump’s administration champions the resurging output of fossil fuels.

Shell has largely outpaced European peers, with shares up 11.3% in the year to date, but most recently notched a sharp drop in annual profit to $23.72 billion for full-year 2024, missing expectations. It announced a 4% hike in dividend per share and launched a $3.5 billion buyback program at the time.

“Shell’s share price has outperformed the peer group handily, and so it should not be a surprise that today’s update reads as more evolution than revolution,” RBC analysts said in a Tuesday note. “At the margin, the guidance looks better than expected, with higher cost reductions, capex guidance coming in lower at the midpoint versus consensus, and higher shareholder returns than anticipated.”

Shell’s stock was up 2% at 8:30 a.m. London time.