Windfall tax urged as profits soar to £68bn
Phillip Inman
The Guardian, Monday April 28 2008
The world’s big oil firms, including BP and Shell, are expected to announce a jump in profits of more than a quarter this week. BP’s profits are expected to soar by more than 40% and Shell’s by around 15% as the rocketing price of oil boosts their finances for the past three months.
Together, the two firms are expected to see their profits reach £68bn this year.
Protesters are expected to claim that the firms are profiteering and should face a windfall tax to channel some of the surplus back into public services.
While fuel protesters are not expected to begin blockading supply terminals in a repeat of the dispute in 2000, some MPs are believed to be ready to voice concern at excess profits in the industry at the expense of consumers.
Oil prices have remained consistently high this year as a combination of increased demand and supply problems continues to plague the industry.
The Grangemouth dispute is only one of several problems faced by the industry, which saw the price of Brent crude soar close to $120 (£60) a barrel last week. In the early part of the decade a barrel of oil cost around $12 a barrel.
Operators in Nigeria have been hit by strikes.
Shell confirmed last week that it had been forced to shut some production in Nigeria after an attack by rebel groups on two of its pipelines.
Despite a rash of similar incidents, the oil producers’ cartel Opec said it saw no reason why it should increase its output.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/apr/28/oil.bp
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Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
