BP, which updates the stock market tomorrow, is expected to say that its underlying profits more than doubled to $1.26 billion, from $532 million in the first quarter of 2016, according to a consensus of analysts’ forecasts.

Shell, which reports on Thursday, is expected to announce underlying profits of $3.05 billion, up from the $1.55 billion it made in the same period the year before.

Brent crude prices averaged only $34 a barrel in the first quarter of 2016, dipping below $28 in January 2016 to reach their lowest point of the recent price slump. A year…