Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell on Wednesday reported a 48% rise in first quarter net profit due to higher oil prices and production growth.

CEO Peter Voser said in a statement the results have been driven by ‘higher energy prices, operational and production performance and Shell’s growth programmes’.
In particular, Shell said production of oil and gas rose 6% in the quarter compared to the same period in 2009.
But although oil prices have remained firm, demand for petrochemicals has increased and there are signs of an improving economic outlook, ‘we are not relying on it, we are continuing with our focus on cash flow growth, underpinned by new project start-ups and lower costs,’ Voser said.
In March, Shell said it is planning to shed a further 2,000 jobs. These come on top of 1,000 redundancies announced at Shell’s earnings presentation in February and 5,000 redundancies announced last October.