Royal Dutch Shell said yesterday that profit after taxation almost tripled to just under $13 billion (10.5 billion euros) in 2017, energized by rising oil and gas prices.

Net or bottom-line earnings for the full year compared with a figure of $4.6 billion in 2016, the Anglo-Dutch energy giant revealed in a statement. Earnings in the fourth quarter leapt 147 percent to $3.8 billion compared with the same part of 2016.

Shell was boosted particularly by a major recovery in crude oil prices, which tends to ramp up revenues and profits for the entire sector.

World oil prices leapt by about 15 percent to finish the year at around $60 per barrel, aided by oil cartel OPEC's efforts to limit its collective production.