Shell's second-quarter net profit more than doubled to $9.84 billion, against a $8.92 billion consensus and $4.26 billion a year earlier — the second-highest quarter on record after 2022. [1] Integrated gas, home to the world's largest LNG trading desk, made $2.7 billion even as gas production fell 31 percent quarter on quarter. Chemicals and products, home to the oil desk, jumped to $2.9 billion from $118 million. [1]

The paper's July 30 feature already named the split: the trading desk profits from disruption, receipts ahead of investment or household pass-through. Monday adds no new household bill and no Pearl restart. Production at the Qatar gas-to-liquids plant remains halted after the March attack; repairs are about a year. [1]

Refineries ran at 102 percent of nameplate. Brent averaged about $97 a barrel. Buybacks stay at $3 billion for the next three months. [1] The Edison force-majeure stack is the contract end of the same war. [2] A doubled profit is not delivered Qatari molecules.

-- THEO KAPLAN, San Francisco