Royal Dutch Shell has revealed profits of £13.9 billion for 2007 - a new record for a UK company. Today's figures benefited from a better-than-expected finish to the year.

The company's profits haul was 9% higher than a year ago and comes after the price of crude oil rose towards $100 a barrel. Shares were steady, off 20p, or 1%, at 1,724 pence.

Fourth-quarter profits were ahead 11% at £3.4 billion. That was higher than consensus forecasts which were around around £3 billion. The boost came from exploration and production, with the division posting earnings of £2.5 billion, against £1.8 billion a year earlier.

This reflected the impact of higher oil and gas prices on revenues, which was partly offset by lower production volumes, higher taxes and rising costs. Shell has also ratcheted up capital spending to seek out new sources of oil and gas, with chief executive Jeroen van der Veer selling off maturing assets to 'rejuvenate' the oil major's portfolio.

Van der Veer said: 'Overall these are satisfactory results. We made good progress in 2007, launched new projects upstream and downstream, and achieved exploration successes.'

Oil and gas production in the fourth quarter, including oil sands, fell to 3.436 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) from 3.645 million last time. That cuts the full-year figure to 3.315 million boepd from 3.473 million in 2006.

This daily output figure was at the bottom of the company's guidance of 3.3-3.5 million boepd. Excluding oil sands, output fell by 4% to 3.381 million boepd in the quarter and by 5% to 3.234 million boepd in the entire year.