The Royal Dutch/Shell Group reported a 56 per cent slump in third-quarter earnings yesterday, disappointing an investment community already impatient with its efforts to restructure.

Net income came in at $841 million (£561 million) before special items, well below analyst forecasts - none of which was below $1 billion. And the company's performance was much poorer than rivals such as British Petroleum and Exxon. Investment analysts said there was no easy explanation for the dismal results, which were weak across the company's range of activities, and they moved to cut forecasts for full-year profits to around $5$5.5 billion from $6 billion previously, down from just above $8 billion in 1997.