London, March 11, 2026, 13:39 GMT
- Shell shares were up about 0.5% in London by 1103 GMT, outperforming a weaker FTSE 100 as energy stocks found support from firmer crude prices. 1
- Reuters reported Shell had moved to suspend some delivery obligations on Qatari liquefied natural gas cargoes sold to customers, with March supplies still expected to be unaffected and disruption seen from April. 2
- Markets are also weighing Shell’s $1.3 billion Jiffy Lube sale and fresh agreements in Venezuela as the company reshapes its portfolio. 3
Shell shares rose about 0.5% in London by 1103 GMT on Wednesday, one of the few bright spots in a weaker UK market, as oil rebounded and traders absorbed Reuters reporting that the company had suspended some contractual delivery obligations on Qatari LNG cargoes sold to customers. BP gained by a similar margin while the broader FTSE 100 slipped. 1
The move matters because Shell sits right in the middle of this energy squeeze. Higher crude and gas prices can bolster earnings, but Shell is also the world’s largest LNG trader, so it is exposed when Qatari supply stumbles. 2
Brent crude traded up 3.8% at $91.11 a barrel by 1159 GMT after the market judged that an International Energy Agency recommendation to release more than 100 million barrels from emergency reserves in the first month would not wipe out the shock from Gulf disruptions. “It doesn’t look like the oil market thinks” the biggest-ever stock release will do much against the crisis, SEB analyst Bjarne Schieldrop said. 4
Reuters reported that Shell, TotalEnergies and some Asian buyers had issued force majeure notices after QatarEnergy halted output at its 77 million-tonne-a-year LNG complex. Force majeure is a contract clause that lets a supplier suspend deliveries without penalties when events outside its control block supply. Analysts estimate Shell takes 6.8 million tonnes a year of Qatari LNG, with March cargoes still expected to flow and the first hit seen from April. 2
There was some relief on the gas side. Shell-led LNG Canada has shipped five cargoes to Asia in the first 11 days of March and was operating near its 14 million-tonne annual capacity, giving buyers a non-Middle East option just as Qatar’s outage tightens the market. 5
Another thread in the story is Monday’s $1.3 billion sale of Jiffy Lube and Premium Velocity Auto to Monomoy Capital Partners. Shell executive Machteld de Haan said the disposal would let the group “reinvest in opportunities that generate higher returns,” another step in CEO Wael Sawan’s push to trim lower-return assets. 3
But the equity market has not fully chased the oil spike. James West, head of energy and power research at Melius Research, said earlier this week that investors were anticipating a swift end to the Strait of Hormuz closure and a drop in oil back toward normal levels, one reason major oil stocks have lagged crude itself. 6
Shell also confirmed to Reuters that it had signed several agreements with Venezuela covering offshore gas, onshore oil and gas, exploration, local content and workforce development. Together with Chevron’s parallel negotiations, the moves suggest big producers are already looking for supply growth away from the Gulf bottleneck. 7
Not all the risk runs through the Middle East. Raizen, Shell’s Brazilian sugar and ethanol joint venture with Cosan, said on Wednesday it had reached an out-of-court deal to restructure 65.1 billion reais of debt. And if the IEA release cools crude or Qatar restores output faster than expected, the short-term lift to Shell’s shares could fade quickly. 8
For now, Shell is being priced as both a winner from higher energy prices and a company caught in the disruption those prices reflect. That helps explain why the shares are up, but not breaking away. 6
