Shell says Texas winter storm to cost $200m

LONDON — Royal Dutch Shell forecast on Wednesday that this year's deadly Texas winter storm will cost the Anglo-Dutch energy giant up to $200 million in the first quarter.

That is equivalent to almost 170 million euros.

"The Texas winter storm had an impact on our operations and is expected to have an aggregate adverse impact of up to $200 million on adjusted earnings," Shell said in a statement.

Last year, Shell plunged into a net loss of $21.7 billion as factories shut and planes were grounded owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Texas storm was expected to curb production by between 10,000 and 20,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) during the three months to the end of March, the statement said.

Total production is expected to climb to between 2.4 and 2.475 million boepd, up from 2.371 million in the fourth quarter.

February's polar vortex storm killed dozens of people, left millions without electricity and water, caused billions of dollars of damage to the sector and forced several Texas electric firms to file for bankruptcy.

The freezing temperatures also caused outages at energy installations -- natural gas-fired power plants, wind turbines and nuclear plants -- which are not typically insulated as they are in other states with colder climates.