Shell's 'obscene' £13.9billion profit is biggest ever by British company

[CGowen]

Shell smashed all-time British company profit records today, posting 2007 earnings of $27.5billion (£13.9billion), and immediately ran into a storm with union leaders, who are demanding the Government hits the oil giant with a windfall tax.

Shell's profit surge - it is now making a staggering $75million (£38million) a day - on the back of a booming oil price that touched $100 a barrel this winter, was labelled as "obscene" by Tony Woodley of Unite, the UK's largest trade union, as Britons struggle with soaring energy costs.

"Shell shareholders are doing very nicely while the rest of us are paying the price and struggling," said Woodley.

"There are no problems with profits, but consumers should question the excessive mega-profits of the oil companies in light of UK companies and hauliers saying they are being pressed on high fuel and energy costs, pensioners struggling to pay energy bills and motorists struggling to fill their petrol tanks."

Shell angrily rejected the claims, arguing that a windfall tax in Britain would be illogical because the vast amount of its business is done around the world.

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=511387&in_page_id=1770

[hunter]

1. What the oil companies are doing makes perfect sense if oil has peaked.

Nobody has the reserves to undercut their competition and take a bigger share of the market.