“I think the problem with the numbers this morning is that the cash flow generation was disappointing. The earnings were very strong but it didn’t get pulled through into cash generation,” Jason Gammel, equity analyst at Jefferies, told CNBC’s “Street Signs” on Thursday.
Shares of Royal Dutch Shell were trading almost 3 percent lower during mid-morning trade on Thursday.
The latest figures come at a time when the environment for oil companies is dramatically improving, amid signs the energy market is rebalancing and crude futures have rallied to multi-year highs.
The main driver for a recent uptick in oil prices has been a supply cut from major oil producing group OPEC and Russia, who started to withhold output in January last year. The production cuts are scheduled to continue throughout 2018.
The move has helped to stabilize oil prices and support oil companies in recent quarters. Brent crude traded at $74.44 a barrel on Thursday morning, up 0.6 percent, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was at $68.37 a barrel, 0.4 percent higher.
Shell rival BP is due to report its latest figures for the same quarter on Tuesday.
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