LONDON (Reuters) -Shell on Friday reported a 28% drop in first-quarter net profit to $5.58 billion, beating analyst expectations, and kept the pace of its share buyback programme steady amid falling oil prices and lower refining margins than last year.

It said it would buy back $3.5 billion worth of shares for the next three months, the fourteenth consecutive quarter of a buyback programme of least $3 billion.

That contrasts with rival BP, which has sharply cut its buybacks this year to shore up its balance sheet. Shell's gearing, a debt-to-equity ratio, of 18.7% is less than BP's 25.7%.

Shell's adjusted earnings, its definition of net profit, reached $5.58 billion in the first quarter, above an average forecast of $4.96 billion in a company-provided analyst poll, but below $7.73 billion a year ago.