Oil Price

Pernis, near Rotterdam, Europe's biggest refinery, owned by Europe's biggest energy company, never in its 115 year history has Shell made more money than it did in the first three months of this year. Shell made underlying profits of 7.2 billion pounds in the first three months of this year alone. That's triple the amount they made in the same period last year. How come? Well the global price of oil, already high at the end of last year as the world economy emerged from its coveted slumber, surged again on concerns that the conflict in Ukraine could see Russian oil supplies disrupted or boycotted. Similar story for gas. The price smashed records earlier this year. Remember, Russia is the world's biggest exporter of gas, and Europe is its biggest customer. Those global prices have been reflected on UK four courts and in UK energy bills. So what is Shell going to do with all that money? Well, in the first three months of the year, it gave over four billion pounds to its shareholders, which, remember, include millions of UK pension savers, but it's also promised to invest up to 25 billion pounds in the UK over the next decade mainly on renewables and low carbon technology but some new oil and gas to help improve the UK's future energy security. The government has so far resisted calls from opposition parties for a windfall tax on oil and gas profits.