Oil price drop pushes Shell profit down 44 percent

LONDON (AP) — Royal Dutch Shell said fourth-quarter earnings tumbled 44 percent as the collapse in oil prices took its toll on another global energy giant.

Profit adjusted for changes in the value of inventories and one-time items dropped to $1.83 billion from $3.26 billion in the same period a year earlier, the Anglo-Dutch company said today.

The results came days after Shell sealed a $52.4 billion takeover of BG Group Plc, which will increase the company's proven reserves of oil and natural gas by 25 percent. While critics questioned the deal because of the plummeting price of oil, CEO Ben van Beurden promised it would rejuvenate Shell.

The BG deal comes as Shell and other oil companies are slashing jobs and postponing investments to adjust the bottom line to the dramatically lower oil prices.