Royal Dutch Shell reported last Wednesday first-quarter net income fell 89 percent from $4,430 million in the first quarter of 2015 to $484 million. Profit adjusted for changes in the value of inventories and excluding one-time items fell 58 percent to $1.55 billion from $3.74 billion in the same period of 2015.

First quarter 2016 revenue came in at $48.55 billion.

First quarter Upstream earnings excluding identified items were a loss of $1,437 million compared with a loss of $195 million a year ago.

First quarter Downstream earnings excluding identified items were $2,010 million compared with $2,646 million for the first quarter 2015, but up sequentially from $1,524 million in the fourth quarter of 2015.

Chemicals earnings excluding identified items were $377 million in the first quarter 2016 compared with $409 million for the same period last year.

During the quarter, Shell completed the acquisition of BG for a purchase consideration of $54,034 million. This includes cash of $19,036 million, and the fair value ($34,050 million) of 1,523.8 million shares issued in exchange for all BG shares. Following completion of the acquisition on February 15, 2016, BG was consolidated within Shell's results. For practical purposes, this includes February and March 2016, as the impact for the first half of February is deemed immaterial.

The consolidation of BG resulted in an increase to first quarter 2016 cash flow from operating activities of $0.8 billion and an increase to CCS earnings attributable to shareholders excluding identified items of $200,000 million.

In the United States, Shell announced that it has signed a non-binding Letter of Intent to divide the assets of Motiva Enterprises LLC. The Motiva joint venture, formed in 1998, has operated as a 50/50 refining and marketing joint venture between Saudi Arabian Oil Company and Shell since 2002. In the proposed division of assets, Shell assumed sole ownership of the Norco, Louisiana refinery (where Shell operates a chemicals plant), the Convent, Louisiana refinery, nine distribution terminals, and Shell branded markets in Florida, Louisiana, and the Northeastern region. Saudi Refining Inc. will retain the Motiva name, assume sole ownership of the Port Arthur refinery in Texas, retain 26 distribution terminals, and have an exclusive license to use the Shell brand for gasoline and diesel sales in Texas, and in the majority of the Mississippi Valley, the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic markets.