Shell PLC

Welcome everyone. Today, Sinead and I will present Shell's fourth quarter and full year 2024 results. 2024 was another strong year for Shell. Despite some softness in our Q4 earnings impacted by some non-cash items, this year we delivered the second highest cash flow from operations in our history. The culture that we are building with a focus on performance, discipline and simplification has been key to achieving these results, enabling us to make great progress in delivering more value with less emissions. Let me start with safety, which remains our top priority. Whilst I'm pleased with the improvements we've seen in personal safety this year, we must continue to do more on process safety and focus on delivering the fundamentals. We will focus on returning to the downward trend of previous years, including leveraging new technologies such as sensors, robotics and AI. These technologies have already started to have an impact, but there is so much more running room to go, and I'm encouraged by the progress that we are starting to see. Now on to Capital Markets Day 2023 and the progress that we are making against our targets. CMD23 was an important milestone for us, and due to the efforts of so many across the organization, we are ahead of schedule across the majority of our key targets and ambitions. Starting with structural costs, where we achieved a reduction of $3.1 billion by the end of 2024, one year ahead of our end 2025 target date, and above the range of $2 to $3 billion that we set in 2023. The first year of these reductions was more heavily weighted towards portfolio actions, but we have now entered a phase that increasingly leans towards reducing costs through performance initiatives and simplification. On CAPEX, I'm really proud of the discipline that we have shown, whether that be through the pausing of projects such as our biofuels project in Rotterdam or passing on opportunities that did not meet our high bar for investment. At CMD23, we lowered our capex range from previous years, and in 2024, because of our focus on value creation, our capex number ended below the lower end of our guidance. All of this, together with our improved operational performance, enabled us to outperform our targets for absolute free cash flow growth and free cash flow per share growth. and we have distributed this additional cash to our shareholders. At CMD23, we increased our distribution range from 20% to 30% of CFFO to 30% to 40%, and we have delivered at the top end of that range. In 2024, we returned more than $22.5 billion to our shareholders, primarily through buybacks, just as we said we would. All of this while further strengthening our balance sheet. Moving forward, we will continue to preferentially allocate incremental capital to buybacks, given the attractiveness of our shares, which are underpinned by the significant progress that we are making as an organisation. Now, let's look at how we are delivering less emissions alongside more value. In 2024, we abated more than 1 million tonnes of CO2 from our operations. This allowed us to keep our total Scope 1 and 2 emissions roughly flat compared with last year, despite increased asset utilisation. To date, we have achieved 60% of the reductions required to meet our 2030 target. Methane emissions remained well below our 0.2% target for 2025 and routine flaring remained flat year on year. And we achieved a reduction in the net carbon intensity of the products that we sell, moving us closer to our target of a 15 to 20% reduction by 2030 compared with 2016 levels. Progress against our carbon targets will not always be linear, but our plans are clear and we have shown that when we commit to something, we deliver it. Let's now move to the progress that we've made on strengthening our portfolio. In our deepwater business, we saw Whale and Marrow 3 come online, adding significant production volumes. At CMD23, we said we would deliver new projects with more than 500,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day of peak production by the end of 2025. Today, we've delivered over 80% of that, with 2025 just beginning. In addition, we took a final investment decision on Bonga North in Nigeria this quarter, a project that's expected to deliver peak production of 110,000 barrels of oil per day, another example demonstrating the strength and attractiveness of our project funnel. Earlier in 2024, we also further strengthened our leading integrated gas portfolio through the acquisition of Pavilion. We entered into the Ruiz LNG project in Abu Dhabi, and we took final investment decisions on a number of important projects such as Manatee in Trinidad and Tobago. and we continue to look for innovative ways to unlock value across our existing portfolio. In the North Sea, we recently announced an incorporated joint venture with Equinor, adopting a new business model to deliver more value from our existing UK assets. In downstream and renewables, we continue to strengthen and high-grade our portfolio. In mobility, we completed the divestment of Shell Pakistan, helping us achieve our Capital Markets Day aim of disposing of 500 sites annually. At the same time, we have now installed more than 70,000 EV public charge points globally, achieving yet another aim one year ahead of schedule. In renewables and energy solutions, we completed the acquisition of a combined cycle power plant in Rhode Island, and we are progressing well with the construction of our Holland Hydrogen One project, which will be Europe's largest renewable hydrogen plant once operational. And in chemicals, we took a final investment decision to expand our CSPC Petrochemicals joint venture with CNOOC in Daya Bay, China. We are focusing the portfolio in areas where we can create value whilst also ensuring that we take opportunities to high-grade, and all of these decisions are leading to improved delivery across the company. And with that, I'll hand over to Sinead, who will tell you more about our financial results and financial framework.

Thank you, Wael. Let's start with adjusted earnings. where we delivered $3.7 billion this quarter. Whilst cash flow was strong, adjusted earnings reflected a lower macro and non-cash items such as well write-offs in addition to lower trading and optimisation. This was partly offset by another quarter of strong operational performance. Our cash flow from operations was some $13.2 billion despite normal Q4 cash outflows, such as the annual payments for the biofuel programmes. I mentioned the strong operational performance this quarter, but if we take a step back and look at 2024, it was a year of improvements across the organisation. Integrated gas and upstream performance improved year on year. At Prelude and QGC, we achieved record availability, resulting in their highest ever production. In chemicals, we saw improved utilisation, thanks to the ramp up of all three units at Shell Polymers Monaca. and in marketing, we achieved the strongest annual adjusted earnings since 2020 at some $3.9 billion, just missing our end 2025 target despite a higher oil price than premised. Mobility in lubricants had a great year, with lubricants delivering its highest result. All of this enabled us to achieve a full year adjusted earnings total of $23.7 billion. And on cash, we generated $54.7 billion of CFFO, our second best year on record, whilst our free cash flow was $39.5 billion, higher than 2023, despite the lower price environment. Moving to our financial framework, our 2024 cash capex totaled $21.1 billion. We were able to invest for growth across the businesses whilst also maintaining a high bar for investment. Our cash capex range for the full year 2025 is expected to be lower than our 2024 range. We will provide more specific guidance at our upcoming Capital Markets Day. We further strengthened our balance sheet and reduced net debt by $4.7 billion year on year whilst absorbing additional leases from major projects such as LNG Canada. We continue to deliver compelling shareholder distributions. Today, we announced another $3.5 billion share buyback program, which we expect to complete by the Q1 results announcement in May. This is the 13th consecutive quarter in which we have announced $3 billion or more in buybacks. In addition, earlier today we also announced a 4% increase in our dividend, in line with our progressive dividend policy, delivering even more value to our shareholders. And with that, I'll hand back to Wael.

Thank you, Sinead. 2024 was a strong year for Shell, and we made significant progress towards our targets. I'm proud of the hard work and dedication demonstrated across the organization that has driven these achievements. Our operational performance has improved. We've brought some outstanding projects online, and we've taken final investment decisions that will help strengthen Shell for years to come. Putting aside our strong delivery, 2024 was also an important year for us given the external context. were pleased with the Dutch court's ruling in favor of Shell in the MD case. We continue to believe our strategy is the right one for the global energy transition, and as a result, we will deliver more value with less emissions. As we build on the momentum that we have created, we aim to be the investment case through the energy transition. Now, I'd like to highlight two upcoming events. First, our annual LNG Outlook, which will be published on the 25th of February. And then, on the 25th of March, we will host our Capital Markets Day in New York, where I really hope you can all join us as we outline the next steps of our journey. Thank you.