A Drilling Boom in Africa

1. Shell Kicks Off Q4 Results With a Bang- The second largest investor-owned oil and gas company in the world, Shell has kicked off this month’s Q4 earnings calls exceeding expectations and promising to maintain the pace of buybacks despite lower commodity prices. - Shell posted a net profit of $28 billion for 2023, beating analyst expectations with Q4 readings of $7.3 billion thanks to improved LNG trading as well as higher production after Australia’s Prelude facility came back online. - The UK-based energy major cut spending on its…