Energy major Shell’s shipping and chartering arm has revealed a bigger loss for 2021 as wage expenses increased.

In accounts filed with Companies House, Shell International Shipping and Trading Company (Stasco) said the net loss for the year was £5.54m ($6.91m), compared to a deficit of just £499,000 in 2020.

Stasco acts as a manager to Shell Trading International’s trading and shipping business, and also for Shell Energy Europe’s trading operations, receiving service fees.

The company is listed as owning three LNG carriers built in 2004 and 2007.

The wider Shell group controls more LNG carriers, floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) units, tankers, general cargo ships and a survey ship.

Revenue grew to £709.5m from £651.7m — the majority of which consisted of service fees from UK companies.

Operating costs came in at £708.8m, up from £651.5m in 2021, while interest expenses rose to £4.6m from £1.3m, pushing the company into the red.

Wages jumped to £257.7m from £221.9m.

Directors said they considered the year-end financial position to be “satisfactory”.

A restructuring plan called Reshape was announced by the parent Shell group in 2020. As a result, a number of Stasco employees took voluntary redundancy.

Provisions and charges for this totalled £10.4m last year.

Part of trading business sold off

The report also reveals the board approved the sale of part of the products derivatives and crude businesses to another Shell group company, Derivatives Trading Atlantic.

This involved the transfer of 14 workers to the buyer.

No dividends were paid for the year.

The company foresees no significant change in business operations during 2022.

Minor Russian effect

However, Stasco said the Ukraine war poses wide-ranging challenges, with impacts on commodity prices and credit risk.

In March, the giant energy group said it would withdraw from all involvement in Russian hydrocarbons, including crude, products, gas and LNG, in a “phased” manner.

The first step was a halt on all purchases of Russian spot crude, Stasco said.

The company earned £4.6m from Russian operations in 2021.

Total equity stood at £254.5m at the end of the year, from £251.9m in 2020.