Royal Dutch Shell profit drops 62%

LONDON (MarketWatch) - Royal Dutch Shell said on Wednesday its first quarter profit slumped 62% as crude oil is the latest major company to disclose how far the bottom line is weakened because of the slump in energy prices.

Shell profit fell to 3.49 billion U.S. dollars from 9.08 billion dollars.

Stripping out 337 million dollars in one-time gains, as well as price changes on unsold inventories, Shell and earnings would be 2.96 billion dollars, compared with analyst estimates of 2.55 billion dollars. Analysts at Macquarie Securities, said earnings beat may come through the shell traders using crude contango in the market at the beginning of this year. Contango near term if the price of futures contract is worth less than oil for delivery in just a few months.