TAKING US FOR FUELS
ENERGY PRICES CRISIS
THE UK’s biggest oil and gas companies raked in £10.2billion in just three months last year, figures reveal.
Shell and BP reported the combined profits, dividends and buybacks at the time wholesale gas prices began to soar.
Households face soaring dual fuel bills of up to £2,000 from April when the energy price cap is reviewed.
The two firms have had £660million in tax credits in five years, official figures show.
It was also reported last autumn they paid zero UK tax on North Sea gas and oil for three years. BP chief executive
Bernard Looney boasted it was a “cash machine” after soaring prices boosted profits. In March it was reported Mr Looney would receive £1.735m for the year, while it was revealed in the spring that Shell chief Ben van Beurden’s 2020 pay was €5.8m (£4.84m). The Government is planning to bring in new measures to help with energy bills. Ministers are believed to be considering bringing in a windfall tax, extending the £140-a-year Warm Home Discount or removing green levies. PM Boris Johnson is resisting calls – backed by the Mirror – to slash the 5% VAT on dual fuel.
From July to September,
Shell and BP reported combined profits, dividends and buybacks of £10.2bn. This included profits of $7.4bn, around £5.5bn. Profits were up from just over $1bn (£750m) in the same quarter in 2020.
Another $2.4bn (£1.8bn) in Shell buybacks were completed, with BP announcing a further $1.25bn (£900m). A buyback is a firm buying back its own shares to increase their price.
Between them, the firms paid out $2.8bn (£2bn) in dividends over the three-month period.
Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Pat McFadden said: “These figures will stick in the throat of working people.”
The Lib Dems said a windfall tax would offer families a £5bn winter lifeline. Leader Ed Davey said: “It can’t be right that a few fat cats are raking it in.”
The firms claim they did not pay corporate income tax because of tax losses arising in the current and previous years.
Shell said it had stepped in to help customers of failed energy firms. BP did not comment.
■ The RAC accused fuel retailers of not passing on lower wholesale petrol prices, saying they should have dropped “nearer to 135p” a litre in December instead of the average of 145.48p.
Shell’s Ben van Beurden and BP leader Bernard Looney