Shell reported on Thursday a 34% annual drop in third-quarter profit to $6.2 billion as energy prices cooled, with strong trading of liquefied natural gas (LNG) helping offset a sharp drop in its production.

The company also announced share buybacks of $3.5 billion over the next three months, up from $2.7 billion in the previous three months, and maintained its dividend unchanged at $0.331 per share.

Shell’s results wrap up third-quarter earnings for the West’s top energy companies which, although seeing sharp drops in profits from last year as oil and gas prices eased, still allowed boards to return billions to investors while Exxon (XOM.N) and Chevron (CVX.N) announced deals to acquire smaller oil and gas companies for a combined $113 billion.

Shell CEO Wael Sawan told analysts on a call that Shell prefers to buy back shares rather than “going for big acquisitions.”

The British company has returned around $23 billion to shareholders so far this year in the form of buybacks and dividends.

Shell shares were up by over 4% at 1615 GMT.

Contrasting with rival BP (BP.L), whose gas trading results weighed on quarterly profits, Shell said its earnings were supported by “favourable” LNG trading results, which were higher than in the second quarter.

Its earnings were however again hit by lower output at its flagship LNG division, which has been plagued by operational problems in recent years, particularly at its 3.6-million metric ton per year Prelude floating LNG production facility off the coast of Australia.