Shell’s chief said it took a “prudent” approach to trading wild oil price swings triggered by geopolitical upheaval including the war between Israel and Iran, in contrast to rivals that capitalised on market volatility.
Chief executive Wael Sawan told the Financial Times that gyrations in the crude market during the second quarter following a surprise production increase from Opec+ and the Israel-Iran conflict were “non-fundamentals based”.
“What we decided to do was be much more prudent in our approach there — what we typically call risk off. We just don’t play in that space,” he said, as the company reported second-quarter earnings on Thursday.