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Daily Star (UK): Obscene: Fury at Shell's £13bn profits

Feb 3rd, 2006
by admin.

By PAUL MALLEY
OIL giant Shell made a staggering profit of £12.93 billion last year – an all-time UK record.
The megabucks sum works out at almost £1.5m every HOUR and is a massive 103 times bigger than tonight's £125m EuroMillions jackpot.
Shell's profits rocketed 30% on the previous year's haul, thanks to sky-high oil and gas prices around the world.
Consumer groups called the figure obscene, claiming motorists and householders are being hammered by “excessive profiteering”.
Shell's results come as motorists face petrol prices of about 90p a litre at the pumps – compared to 79.6p a year ago.
Edmund King, the RAC Foundation's executive director, said: “I think drivers will be surprised that oil companies are making record profits while they pay record prices.”
Andrew Spence, chairman of the Fuel Lobby, which last year organised protests over the high levels tax on fuel, blasted: “It is absolutely ridiculous. “Yet again the British motorist is being hammered by excessive taxation and excessive profiteering. “We are getting hit on all sides.”
Charity National Energy Action (NEA) says thousands of vulnerable people are being forced further into the poverty trap. William Gillis, chief executive of NEA, said: “Continuing domestic energy price rises will lead to a major increase in the number of households struggling to pay their bills, or paying the health and social costs of living in cold damp homes. “We urge Shell to consider gas consumers facing debt and cold homes.”
Ann Robinson, director of consumer policy at switching and comparison service uSwitch.com, said: “It's great news for shareholders but little comfort for the 1.8m households that are currently victim to fuel poverty in the UK. “We believe that organisations' like Shell should be doing more to protect UK consumers who are footing the bill.”
Tony Woodley, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union, said: “Part of this windfall should be handed back to the public through a one-off tax to help ease the pensions crisis.”
Friends of the Earth called for a windfall tax on Shell to tackle climate change. The campaign group's head of corporate accountability, Craig Bennett, said: “Oil companies must be forced to face up to their wider responsibilities – on climate change and the environment.”
Defending the profit – which could buy 645 Wayne Rooneys or build more than 17 Wembley Stadiums – Shell said it will use some of the windfall to return billions of pounds to investors in share buybacks; It's the Business: Page 51
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