The Hague-based Royal Dutch Shell plc (RDS-A – Analyst Report) owns one of the largest integrated oil and gas businesses in the world. The group has operations all over the world and is involved in various activities related to oil and natural gas, chemicals, power generation, renewable energy resources, and other energy related businesses. Royal Dutch Shell divides its operations into three major segments: Upstream, Downstream, and Corporate.

Currently, Royal Dutch Shell has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) but that could change following its second quarter 2015 earnings report which has just released. Coming to earnings surprise history, the company has a good track record: its beaten estimates in 3 of the last four quarters at an average rate of 11.18%.

We have highlighted some of the key details from the just-released announcement below:

Earnings: Shell beats on earnings. Earnings per ADR (on a current cost of supplies basis) – excluding one-time items and gains or losses from inventories came in at $1.20, comprehensively outpacing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 93 cents.

Revenue: Revenues fall year-over-year. Revenues of $72.4 billion were down 34.9% from the second quarter 2014 level of $111.2 billion.

Key Stats: Upstream segment earnings during the quarter (excluding items) were $1 billion, a considerable decline from the $4.7 billion (adjusted) earned in the year-ago period. Shell's upstream volumes averaged 2,731 thousand oil-equivalent barrels per day (MBOE/d), 11.2% lower than the year-ago period. The company's worldwide realized liquids prices were 43% below their year-earlier levels and natural gas realizations fell 31% from the second quarter of 2014. In the Downstream segment, the Anglo-Dutch super-major recorded a profit (excluding items) of $3 billion as against $1.3 billion in the year-ago period.

To Cut jobs, Slash Capital spending: In order to cope with the low commodity price environment, Shell plans to axe around 6,500 jobs this year and trim capital expenditure by $7 billion.