Shell profits up to £3.2 billion
Wednesday 28th April 2010, 11:30AM BST.
Royal Dutch Shell today announced a 49% surge in first quarter profits as the energy giant joined rival BP in benefiting from higher oil prices.
The Anglo-Dutch group reported earnings of 4.9 billion US dollars (£3.2 billion) for the first three months of the year – a day after BP posted a figure of 5.6 billion US dollars (£3.6 billion).
Chief executive Peter Voser said rising energy prices and an improved operational performance meant Shell’s profits were sharply higher than the 1.18 billion US dollars in the final quarter of 2009.
Shell’s performance has lagged behind BP as it has been forced to ramp up spending to secure new sources of oil and gas at a time when refining margins are under pressure due to global overcapacity and economic weakness.
The company cut 5,000 jobs last year and will remove another 1,000 in 2010 – mainly in downstream and corporate functions – to make it more competitive against its rivals.
Analysts believe the firm has suffered for “taking its foot off the pedal” in exploration in the late 1990s.
Mr Voser, who said the company’s results had “improved considerably”, claimed the recent turnaround was largely driven by Shell’s own actions.
He added: “The priorities are for a more competitive performance, for growth, and for sharper delivery of strategy. There is more to come from Shell.”
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why do these these companies announce their profits like they are doing us a favour.am i the only one who feels a bit like they are sticking two fingers up to the public when petrol prices are so high. if any of the political parties out there challenged these companies then surely it would be a vote winner. or are they frightened of derailing the gravy train and losing the support of these profit hungry companies.
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Will these profits ever mean that the price of petrol will fall as these companies get richer while the motorist gets poorer with the constant rise in petrol prices. Happy to hear these companies are so much richer when everyone else gets poorer
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What can you do other than moan…..?
Cant live without the stuff, Goverment as greedy as the manufactures with regards to Taxes.
Cost of living in Food,Fuel, Energy, Council Tax totally out of control. Then we wonder why we are becoming a nation of non working, benefit takers as the working class man with a family cant afford to work.
Not good.
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While these profits seem disgusting to the average motorist let us not forget who takes the biggest slice of your £1.25 per litre. We pay between 70% and 80% of this £1.25 as tax thanks to our ever spending Government. If the oil company puts 1p on a litre we see it as a 3p per litre rise and nice Mr Brown rubs his hands together as he gathers in the extra 2p.
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To true, but thats been the case over many years of different governments. It’s an easy tax to collect money with. The petrol companies are responsible for all of the increases in the last few months. If they are making such vast amounts of money, why then keep increasing the prices? It’s the same as all our utility companies. We the workers will always be milked because we are all easy pickings.
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While your comment about successive governments is true, it is the current government which introduced an ever increasing fuel duty “riser” above the level of inflation. You also I feel miss the point that yes, the profits made by the companies are vast but then HMG is making 2 to 3 times the total cost not just the “profit” in tax. Lets make it simple for you. A liter of fuel costs £1.25. Approximately 40p goes to the company of which the forcourt operator sees about 1p, the company profit is of slightly higher value maybe 5p the remaining 34p is covering operating costs. HMG take the remaining 85p for doing nothing. Get it now?
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Facts… inflation of fuel under Tory rule was actually higher than now!!yes I did get it in the first place..However the point I am making is that once again we the public are hammered for more money when giant companies are still making profits above ther rate of inflation!! If a company makes so much money,Why the need for constant rises? Simple answer.They don’t like to be the ones who have to reduce their profits. Same situation we are in with our utility companies,although occassionaly they do reduce their prices. But they have already made enough extra out of the public to cover the reduction.. yes the government taxes it up to the hilt. someones got to subsidise tax credits, social security and immigration costs. Where does the money come from to do this then? The government takes the 85p and does nothing to earn it.. Agreed but since when did they earn tax money anyway?NOW! do you get it????
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Stjoe : I contest your “fact” about price rise under the “tory rule” maybe some numbers might be useful rather than bald rhetoric, however to follow your argument, if its all right with you, I’ll continue to fund social security, but I’d rather like to stop funding immigration which as you state needs to be subsidised. Maybe you can pay that bit for me as you seem to be in favour of doing so.
Your point about utility companies is well made and I have not refered to them at all, merely that if one is going to be outraged by greed then one needs to look at ALL the greedy parties involved.
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This is a multinational company involved in many enterprises announcing total profits. What they make in Britian is a fraction of that profit.
Oh, and your pension schemes benefit from that profit too.
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