The pre-tax loss of around $900 million in its LNG trading offers rare insight into its trading operations that can also sharply boost the group's earnings. Shell's LNG trading performance contrasts with rivals BP and TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) which both reported strong earnings from their trading divisions in the quarter, without providing details. The rally in European prices far outpaced Asian prices , leading to a collapse in the spread between the two benchmarks. Gorman added that for the first three quarters of 2022, LNG trading results were higher than the same period a year earlier. Asian prices have been weakened by muted Chinese demand since the start of the year due to covid and slow economic growth.

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