Royal Dutch Shell profits up 50% on oil price

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has seen its quarterly profits jump by nearly 50% thanks to higher oil prices. The Anglo-Dutch company said profits for the first three months of the year were $4.9 billion - up 49% on the same period last year. Shell said higher energy prices and growth in its business had helped boost profits from "low levels" seen at the end of last year. Profits for the last three months of 2009 were $1.2bn. Those poor results prompted Shell to announce plans to cut 2,000 jobs before the end of 2010, helping to cut a planned $1bn in costs. Shell's chief executive Peter Voser said the turnaround in results for the first quarter of the year were "driven largely by our own actions", citing growth in production and exploration of new oil fields.