Quarterly Nets Up at Texaco, Shell

Texaco, the nation’s third-largest oil company, said Friday that it earned $307 million in the last three months of 1985, an increase of 44% from a year earlier before inclusion of a special charge against earnings in the like 1984 quarter.

In Houston, Shell Oil reported fourth-quarter earnings of $652 million, an increase of 12% from $581 million a year earlier. Shell is the nation’s seventh-largest oil company in terms of revenue.

Both Texaco and Shell credited lower acquisition costs for crude oil as a factor in their improved earnings. However, they said the sharp drop in world oil prices in recent weeks has caused uncertainty.

Texaco said its 1985 financial report does not reflect any provision for Pennzoil’s outstanding multibillion-dollar judgment against Texaco, “because the ultimate outcome of the litigation is not presently determinable.”

Texaco’s earnings per share for the final quarter of 1985 rose to $1.29. A year earlier, Texaco reported a net loss of $552 million, including a special charge of $765 million resulting from the write-down of certain assets.

Fourth-quarter revenue totaled $12.5 billion, up 4% from $12 billion a year earlier.

For all of 1985, Texaco said its earnings were $1.23 billion, up from the $306 million, or $1.03 a share, reported for 1984, including the special fourth-quarter charge.

Texaco’s 1985 revenue was $47.5 billion, down about 1% from 1984.

Shell said its fourth-quarter earnings of $652 million compared to earnings of $581 million a year earlier. The company does not report earnings per share because it is a subsidiary of Royal Dutch-Shell, which is based in both London and the Hague, Netherlands.

Shell said revenue in the quarter was $5.51 billion, up 4.5% from $5.27 billion a year earlier.

For all of 1985, Shell said it had net income of $1.65 billion, down 6.7% from a year earlier. Revenue for all of 1985 totaled $20.5 billion, down 2% from the year before.