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Royal Dutch Shell PLC said Thursday that its third-quarter net profit rose 68% as gains from high oil prices and a pipeline sale cushioned losses from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The Anglo-Dutch oil giant said net income rose to $9.03 billion, or $1.35 a share, from $5.37 billion, or 79 cents a share, a year earlier. Shell's numbers conform to international financial-reporting standards, which differ from U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.

The results were bolstered by special net gains of around $1.57 million, mainly from the divestment of pipeline assets held through Gasunie NV in the Netherlands. In the third quarter of 2004, Shell recorded a charge of $28 million.

Revenue climbed 8.1% to $76.44 from $70.69 billion, while pretax profit was $15.04 billion, up from $9.39 billion.

The exploration and production segment reported net profit of $4.98 billion, up from $2.34 billion, mainly reflecting higher energy prices and divestment gains, which were partly offset by lower volumes and higher costs, the company said.

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"Our operational performance is paying off with good results. Downstream performance, profitability and cash generation remain very satisfactory," Chief Executive Jeroen van der Veer said in a statement.

Shell said its capital investment outlook for 2005 remained at approximately $15 billion, excluding the minority share of its Sakhalin project.

Shell said that it has restored just under half of its share of lost oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico, adding that it expects to be ahead of earlier forecast recovery rates in the fourth quarter.

Shell said its share of lost output in the Gulf in the aftermath of recent hurricanes was 450,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day in the third quarter, but more than 200,000 barrels a day had been returned.

The company added that output from its Mars platform is to resume in the second half of 2006. Capacity at Mars is 220,000 barrels a day of benchmark sour crude and 220 million cubic feet a day of gas. Shell said earlier this year that it was pumping 140,000 barrels of oil and 156 million cubic feet of gas daily.

The company said that around 15 million barrels of production in the third quarter and some 18 million barrels will be deferred in the fourth quarter.

Shell added that the costs associated with the damage to its upstream operations in the Gulf will be around $300 million, before any money is recovered from its insurers.

Its U.S. crude production in the third quarter fell more than 28% against the second quarter, to 289,000 barrels a day, with gas output available for sale falling 30% to 948 million cubic feet a day.

Lost refinery output from the hurricanes was 4.9 million barrels in the third quarter, and some 4.5 million barrels is likely to be lost in the final quarter of the year, with costs pegged at $50 million.

Shell said Tuesday that the Port Arthur, Texas, refinery will return to normal production rates by the end of this week. The refinery is operated by Motiva Enterprises, a joint venture between Shell and Saudi Arabian Oil Co.

The 275,000 barrel-a-day refinery shut ahead of Hurricane Rita and encountered problems with its electrical system after the storm.

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