LNG prices have soared this year as Moscow progressively cut piped natural gas supplies to Europe, which heavily depended on Russian imports. Western sanctions on Russia, which is among the world's leading oil and gas producers, in response to its invasion of Ukraine in February, helped to drive European gas prices to an all-time high in August. The world's biggest LNG trader Shell missed some of the benefit of the price rise after a fall in production following strikes at Australia's Prelude site. Gearing at Shell, which is on track for a record year of profits, increased slightly to 20.3%. Spain's Repsol (REP.MC) on Thursday reported a doubling of its profit to 1.48 billion euros ($1.49 billion).

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