Royal Dutch Shell blamed continuing woes in refining, fuel theft in Nigeria and higher exploration costs for its first profit warning in 10 years. The company said fourth-quarter earnings would be “significantly lower” than last year in the first update under new chief executive Ben van Beurden, who took over as chief executive from Peter Voser at the beginning of the year. Shell said it would take a $700m charge related to its exploration and production activities and added that its upstream American business, which has been hurt by falling natural gas prices, would continue to make a loss. It also said that its downstream earnings in the fourth quarter of last year had been hit by “significantly weaker” industry refining conditions, in particular in Asia-Pacific and Europe. Shares in the company, which fell 3.3 per cent to £21.19 in early trading, have underperformed the European […]