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May 5th, 2022:

Shell profits soar to $9.1bn amid calls for windfall tax

The Guardian

Shell profits soar to $9.1bn amid calls for windfall tax

Record quarter piles pressure on government to issue one-off levy to curb rising energy bills

Alex Lawson: Thu 5 May 2022 02.55 EDT

Shell has reported a record quarterly profit of $9.1bn (£7.3bn) for the first three months of the year, piling more pressure on the government to implement a windfall tax to fund measures to tackle soaring household energy bills.

The first-quarter profit was boosted by a sharp rise in oil and gas prices, and compared with $6.3bn of profits in the final three months of 2021 and $3.2bn during the first quarter of last year. It was above analysts’ expectations of first-quarter adjusted earnings of $8.7bn.

Campaigners have called for a one-off levy on companies benefiting from soaring oil and gas prices to fund government initiatives to reduce the burden of rising bills.

Shell’s update comes after BP reported its highest quarterly profit in more than a decade on Tuesday. Its profits more than doubled to $6.2bn, and sparked a clamour for a windfall tax.

The government has resisted calls for such a levy. Boris Johnson has said it would discourage oil and gas producers from making investments into domestic energy.

But BP’s chief executive, Bernard Looney, has admitted none of the £18bn UK investments the company is planning would be dropped if a windfall tax were imposed. read more

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