By Shadia Nasralla and Stephanie Kelly

LONDON (Reuters) -Shell’s adjusted earnings, its definition of net profit, reached $5.4 billion in the third quarter, it said on Thursday, compared with an average estimate of $5.09 billion in a poll of analysts provided by the company and with $6.03 billion a year earlier.

The oil major said it would maintain the pace of its share buyback programme at $3.5 billion over the next three months, the 16th consecutive quarter, where it is spending at least $3 billion.

Shell reported cash flow from operations at $12.2 billion for the quarter, compared with $14.7 billion during the same quarter of last year.

(Reporting by Stephanie Kelly and Shadia NasrallaEditing by Tomasz Janowski)

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