By Sylvia Pfeifer,
Last Updated: 11:54pm GMT 03/02/2007
The cost of building and developing offshore oil and gas projects has risen by more than 50 per cent over the past few years, one of the world’s leading energy consultancies has warned. The huge surge in cost has been overshadowed by the record profits the oil majors have generated in recent years.
Last week, ExxonMobil, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, reported profits of $39.5bn (£20bn). Royal Dutch Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil group, saw earnings rise by an underlying 25 per cent to $25.4bn, the largest profit recorded by a UK-listed company. The biggest driver behind these profits has been the high price of crude which has tripled in the past five years.