Shell posts £10bn quarterly profits as households struggle with bills – Oil company to give shareholders £6.5bn after benefiting from price surge following Ukraine invasion
Shell posts £10bn quarterly profits as households struggle with bills – Oil company to give shareholders £6.5bn after benefiting from price surge following Ukraine invasion
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Shell made record profits of nearly £10bn between April and June and promised to give shareholders payouts worth £6.5bn as the oil supermajor benefited from the surge in energy prices prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The FTSE 100 company made adjusted profits of $11.5bn (£9.5bn) during the second quarter of the year, beating its previous high – set between January and March – by 26%. The profits were more than double the same period in 2021.
The roaring trade for Shell, BP and other major oil and gas companies has stood in contrast to households and much of the rest of the economy, who have had to deal with higher energy prices that have caused inflation to soar to 40-year highs in the UK and elsewhere, and which threaten to tip economies into recessions across much of the world.
The scale of the oil companies’ profits prompted the UK government to eventually give in to demands for a windfall tax to redistribute some of the profits, although some senior Conservative ministers are thought to favour removing the tax, amid a leadership campaign that will lead to a new prime minister and cabinet in September.
The windfall tax – known as the energy profits levy – will not apply until 14 July, meaning the second-quarter profits and payouts to shareholders were not affected.
Yet it has remained a bonanza for Shell and its shareholders, who received $7.4bn in the first quarter of 2022 and will receive another $6bn in a share buyback and $1.8bn in dividends announced on Tuesday.
Shell said it had experienced “higher realised prices, higher refining margins and higher gas and power trading”.
Vladimir Putin’s invasion has meant that Shell may have to abandon its stake in the Sakhalin-2 gas project with Russia’s Gazprom. Yet the recognised costs of abandoning Russia are $4.3bn – just over a third of the profits Shell has made in three months since Kremlin troops entered Ukraine. The company had already booked costs worth $4.2bn related to its withdrawal from Russia, but it increased this estimate by only $111m in the second quarter of the year.
Shell said it expected the tight energy market was here to stay. It added $4.3bn to its income attributable to shareholders to account for higher than expected prices in the mid- and long-term “reflecting the current energy market demand and supply fundamentals”.
Ben van Beurden, Shell’s chief executive, recognised the “huge challenges for consumers, governments and companies alike” caused by the “volatile energy markets”, but argued that the company is “using our financial strength to invest in secure energy supplies which the world needs today, taking real, bold steps to cut carbon emissions and transforming our company for a low-carbon energy future.”
When is enough, enough?
It’s mad that we live on our own on a rock on the edge of a galaxy in a deep and unknowable space and we let a small group of us control most of the resources
The owners of British Gas also announced a profit of £1.3b this morning.
I hate everything.
Crazy, windfall taxes surely have to be considered. Wont happen though as long as corporate lobbying remains legal.
Rich Mans – WAR – Poor Mans – BLOOD … Its all , in ,Vogue, Ya Know ?
Thank God we have that magic money tree. Imagine if the ultra wealthy and their multi-national companies were accumulating unimaginable wealth at the expense of ordinary people.
This is late-stage capitalism right here.
Well they must have earned it
public are being taken for fools, inflation is not caused by the covid spending it’s from companies trying to pull a fast one, watch the companies that increased profit by 30-50% last year due to covid, this year they will pretend the 30% profit drop is because of inflation.
It gets worse
**Spanish energy group Repsol has gone even further than Shell, by quadrupling its profits in the last quarter.**
Repsol reported adjusted net income of €2.12bn in the second quarter of 2022, up from €488m in April-June 2021.
Earnings were boosted by the surge in oil and gas prices, and higher profits from refining and trading.
[https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2022/jul/28/shell-profits-record-households-cost-of-living-us-economy-gdp-business-live](https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2022/jul/28/shell-profits-record-households-cost-of-living-us-economy-gdp-business-live)
I wonder how much our own Frontline Energy has made lately. They keep mumbling that their price of 0.39 EUR per kWh of gas, which is about 4 times higher than any other provider in Ireland, doesn’t give them any profits whatsoever. Something doesn’t quite add up there.
Ah sure, nothing to bother about. Let them continue drinking our blood and poisoning the air we breathe.
Profit making company makes profit.
Dog bites man.
Yes but we all need to stop eating Irish Beef and stop flying to Spain……
Burn it all to the ground
Parasitical capitalist scum.
Absolute cunts
Off with their heads.
Meanwhile, the eat or heat dilemma for the less privileged 🙁
“yeah, and…?”
— oil companies, probably
Well energy prices went up due to curtailed supply, not surprising. A listed companies job is to maximise profits. Good luck to them.
“Capitalism rewards innovation”
This is why I fucking LOVE capital markets. Any single one of us on here could have profited off this. I know I did. But you were too busy whining from your high horse.
Another day another scumbag move by an oil company.
Aren’t we the shareholders via our pensions?
So what? They lost $21 billion in 2020. They benefit from price increases, and suffer from price decreases, both of which are subject to the prevailing conditions globally. What of it?
We are being robbed and manipulated by these bastards. When will we make a stand?
Absolutely crazy. There was a documentary on bbc last night called “big oil vs the world”. It showed using Exxon’s own archives that the oil industry was conducting research into climate change back in the 70’s and 80’s and that they came to the conclusion that this would lead to increased global temperature and increased extreme weather events. They basically buried it and started hiring PR firms and paid off certain scientists to create distrust and uncertainty about the research other groups where doing. They managed to postpone any meaningful reductions in emissions by 30 years. They put profits before the world. They should be paying massive taxes now to repay for what they’ve done. Actual evil fuckers who knew exactly what they where doing. The CEO’s etc of this companies should be be in prison
Where were posts like this when shell lost 20 billion in 2020?
Yes they made a lot this quarter, but they are in a cyclical business so focusing on their good months is pointless when you’re not focusing on the bad ones too.
Not to mention their return on equity is about 12.5% compared to the average for companies which is 18.5%
So as much as we all dislike high energy prices, oil companies aren’t squeezing you as much as you think they are
And yesterday people were shitting on communism in the post with hammer and sickles spray painted on the wall saying capitalism is still the best system
Well this is capitalism folks, fucking enjoy it
While the population generally struggles with the rising costs of living and energy ,Oil and energy companies right now be like:
