Shell profit jump sparks calls for windfall tax rise

Shell profit jump sparks calls for windfall tax rise

Oil giant Shell has added nearly $10 billion in extra profit to its balance sheet as gas prices remain high.

The business said its adjusted earnings more than doubled to $9.5bn (£8.2bn) in the three months to the end of September when compared with the year before.

But profits are down compared with the company’s second quarter, when it made $11.5bn (£9.9bn), as the price of oil slowly began to fall after months of multi-year highs due to the war in Ukraine.

“We are delivering robust results at a time of ongoing volatility in global energy markets,” said chief executive Ben van Beurden.

Shell is now nine months into what promises to be the company’s most profitable year ever, barring an unlikely major collapse in oil and gas prices over the next two months.

The business was already benefiting from a global economy that had reopened after the pandemic and was desperate for energy to fuel its growth.

Then Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an unprovoked attack on Ukraine. This pushed European gas prices to all-time highs and the price of oil soared internationally.

The months-long energy crisis led then-chancellor Rishi Sunak in May to introduce a windfall tax on oil and gas companies operating in the North Sea.

But that has not stopped Shell from handing billions of dollars to its shareholders this year.

On October 27 it announced plans to return another $4bn (£3.5bn) to shareholders by buying back shares over the next three months, and said it will also increase the dividend by 15%.

It takes the total payout to Shell shareholders to $26bn (£22.4bn) so far this year.

The figures prompted Greenpeace to call for a “proper tax” on the energy giant’s profits, which it said could help insulate thousands of homes.

“While Shell continues to bank billions, how many more households need to be forced into fuel poverty before the Government wakes up? The only way to address the interlocking cost of living, energy security and climate crises is a street-by-street rollout of home insulation combined with a massive lift in ambition for renewable energy,” the campaign group’s UK senior climate adviser, Charlie Kronick, said.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: “The Conservative Government’s refusal to properly tax these eye-watering profits is an insult to families struggling to pay their energy bills.

“Even the CEO of Shell has admitted that oil and gas companies should be taxed more to help protect vulnerable households.”