Shell Reports Payments to Governments for 2025

Shell plc published its Report on Payments to Governments for the year 2025 on Thursday. The document provides a consolidated overview of payments made by Shell and its subsidiary undertakings related to extractive activities. The report was prepared in accordance with the UK's Reports on Payments to Governments Regulations 2014, as amended in December 2015.

These rules implement the EU Accounting Directive and apply to large UK-incorporated companies involved in the exploration, prospection, discovery, development and extraction of minerals, oil and natural gas. U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934. com/payments.

It covers payments to national, regional and local governments, including departments, agencies and national oil companies.

Payments are disclosed at the project level where they can be attributed to a single contract, licence, lease or concession. Projects that are substantially interconnected through geographic proximity, shared infrastructure or common operational management are treated as one.

Payments not attributable to a specific project are reported at the entity level. The report includes only activities involving exploration, prospection, discovery, development and extraction. It excludes payments related to refining, natural gas liquefaction and gas-to-liquids operations.

For fully integrated projects without a clear contractual separation between extractive and processing activities, payments are reported in full without artificial splits. Payments from entities under joint control are not included.

The report breaks down payments into several types.

Production entitlements represent the host government's share of production from Shell-operated projects, including amounts derived from cost recovery under production sharing contracts. Any production entitlements used by a government to settle Shell's income tax obligations are deducted from the reported figure.

Taxes include those levied on income, profits or production such as resource severance tax and petroleum resource rent tax. These are reported net of refunds. The category excludes consumption taxes, personal income taxes, sales taxes, property taxes and environmental taxes.

Royalties are payments for the right to extract resources, typically calculated as a percentage of revenue after permitted deductions. Bonuses cover one-time payments made upon signing agreements, declaration of commercial discovery, commencement of production or reaching production milestones.

Licence fees, rental fees, entry fees and other considerations relate to acquiring rights to areas for extractive activities. Administrative fees not tied to the extractive sector and payments for general government services are excluded. Infrastructure improvement payments cover construction of roads, bridges or rail not primarily dedicated to extractive use.

Social investments such as schools or hospitals are not reported. For the year ended December 31, 2025, there were no reportable dividend payments to governments other than those made to ordinary shareholders. The report states that when Shell makes a payment directly to a government for a project, it is included regardless of whether Shell is the operator.