Shell and BP are preparing to bask in the benefit of the recent oil price surge with big profit jumps helping to draw a line under years of ferocious cost cutting.
On Tuesday Shell is expected to unveil profit of just above $3bn after a loss of $460m in the same quarter last year, using the oil industry’s standard ‘current cost of supplies’ measure.
Meanwhile BP investors are poised for profits of $1.26bn in Thursday’s results, using the major’s equivalent measure, after reporting $532m in the first quarter of last year.