Europe's energy giants reap benefits of oil price surge

Anglo-Dutch energy giant Royal Dutch Shell, French peer Total and Spain's Repsol on Thursday logged surging second-quarter net profits on the back of soaring oil prices.

Rising oil prices can push up inflation and adversely impact the world economy further down the line -- but first they translate into rising revenues and profits for energy majors and producer nations.

"The rise in the price of crude is obviously very good news for oil companies," said analyst Fawad Razaqzada at trading firm Forex.com.

He added: "The higher the price of oil goes, the better the profit margins and revenue would be for oil companies."

The oil market has been propelled by a December 2016 deal between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) cartel and Russia to curb production. The price of London Brent crude, which is the main global oil benchmark, has jumped about 50 percent over the last twelve months to the current level of $74 per barrel.

Fearing an out-of-control spike in prices, Opec and Russia reached a new deal in June to open the taps.

The buoyant market has nevertheless fizzed higher on output disruptions in oil producers like Iran, Libya and Venezuela.

Royal Dutch Shell announced Thursday that second-quarter net profits quadrupled, energised by high oil prices and asset sales, and launched a vast $25-billion shares buyback.