Oil giant Shell suffered loss of $21 billion in 2020

Royal Dutch Shell announced on Thursday that it had suffered a net loss of USD 21.7 billion in 2020. The coronavirus pandemic-hit year had seen a massive drop in demand for energy.

In 2019, the Anglo-Dutch company had registered a net profit of USD 1.8 billion. Shell's result is similar to British rival BP, which on Tuesday reported a 2020  net loss of $20.3 billion.

Both companies are cutting jobs to tackle the economic fallout from the pandemic.

After governments worldwide closed their doors and airlines grounded planes towards the end of last year's first quarter, oil prices dropped off a cliff, even briefly turning negative.

Prices then rebounded sharply however -- and they soared Tuesday to pre-pandemic levels on the brightening economic outlook as more progress was reported on vaccines.

(With AFP inputs)