Surging oil prices and strong refining margins enabled Shell to report fourth-quarter net earnings of $5.127 billion, including gains on one-off items of $318 million.
The company said it would pay out at least $10 billion in cash, to shareholders from dividends in 2005.
Shell has been struggling to rebuild investor confidence after a reserves over-booking scandal last year that led to top management sackings and raised serious concerns about the company's ability to replace the oil it pumps with new finds.
The company said it had completed its reserves review and would restate around 1.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent, slightly worse than analyst forecasts of a 900 million cut.
However, Shell said it would restart its share buyback programme from this month.
Its previous suspension of the buyback programme had displeased some investors.
Shell's strong set of profits comes after the world's biggest oil group, Exxon Mobil, reported a record fourth-quarter profit this week. Shell's fierce rival BP is due to report results next week.