Royal Dutch Shell has said that it will boost returns to investors within weeks after rising oil prices helped it to reduce debt.
The Anglo-Dutch oil group is likely to launch share buybacks that could be worth more than $1 billion each quarter, analysts predicted, after the company announced it was ready to “move to the next phase of its capital allocation framework”.
Shell said that this would see it “increase total shareholder distributions”, subject to board approval, starting from its second-quarter results announcement on July 29.
It credited “strong operational and financial delivery, combined with an improved macro-economic outlook” for the decision.
Oil prices have risen to a three-year high of more than $75 a barrel in recent weeks as the economy starts to
