Subject to Board approval, Shell aims to grow the dividend per share by around 4% every year. In total, Shell targets the distribution of a minimum of 20% and, subject to Board approval and prevailing market conditions, potentially more than 30% of our cash flow from operations to shareholders. Shell may choose to return cash to shareholders through a combination of dividends and share buybacks.
When setting the level of shareholder distributions, the Board looks at a range of factors, including the macro environment, the earnings and cash flows of the Group, the current balance sheet, future investment, acquisition and divestment plans and existing commitments. We returned $7.4 billion to our shareholders through dividends in 2022.
The fourth-quarter 2022 dividend of $0.2875 per share will be paid on March27, 2023 to shareholders on the register at February17, 2023 and represents an increase of 15% compared with the third quarter of 2022.
See Note 29 to the “Consolidated Financial Statements”.
