How energy giant Shell shifts its profits out of Australia | The Business | ABC NEWS
Amid renewed debate over whether Australia is getting enough tax from its gas exports, an investigation by the ABC shows how one LNG producer uses Singapore to help boost its profits. That company is Shell, the global oil and gas super major, which is the world’s largest trader of the fuel. Over the eight years to 2024, Shell’s LNG trading and marketing arm in Singapore made billions of dollars in profit. And it did so by buying LNG from producer countries such as Australia before on-selling the gas at a significant mark-up. Financial statements lodged by Shell and its subsidiaries in Australia, Singapore and the UK, where the company is ultimately headquartered, reveal the eye-watering sums of money involved in the trade. Corporate records show the Singapore branch of Shell Global LNG paid $US83 billion ($116b) for LNG between 2017 and 2024. The branch then sold that gas for $US105 billion — a mark-up of $US22 billion. About 85 per cent of that gas was sourced from other Shell companies, including those in Australia. Jim Killaly, a former deputy commissioner at the Australian Taxation Office, says “the margin of $US22 billion is very significant, and the parties are related. So, to me the warning bells would be ringing in terms of whether there’s a profit shifting risk there.”
Shell Australia admits it sells “the majority of LNG produced in Australia to the Shell Asia-Pacific trading business based in Singapore to access markets and its significant expertise in trading, marketing and shipping”. It also says it prepared a Voluntary Tax Transparency Report showing all taxes paid in Australia each year since 2016 and has an ongoing and transparent dialogue with the Australian Taxation Office under its justified trust program. MST Financial senior energy analyst Saul Kavonic said “this becomes a game where the industry will try and minimise its tax as much as legally possible. And the tax office will try and is aware of that and makes its rules accordingly.”
This investigation by Daniel Mercer and Neil Chenoweth
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Read more here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-11/australian-gas-giants-using-singapore-to-reduce-taxes/106632272
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