Shell's second-quarter net profit tumbled by almost a third on Thursday, dragged down by a drop in oil prices, lower gas trading results and outage-related losses from its chemicals operations, but it still easily beat analysts' forecasts.

The energy giant maintained the pace of its shareholder returns despite lower prices weighing on energy companies’ balance sheets.

Energy giant Shell has maintained the pace of its $3 billion-plus share buybacks, despite quarterly profits falling by a third in the face of falling oil and gas prices.