Energy company profits

MouldyOldDough

BP made £4.9billion profit in the first 3 months of this year

Shell made £7.3 billion in the same period – that’s over £500 per household, just from these two companies in just three months

This is a vast amount of money at our expense

The government MUST impose a windfall tax on these profits to plough back in to supporting customers and also should prevent these companies from increasing rates any further.

spot1034

Would you have been in favour of every household making a contribution two years ago to cover the massive losses they were making at that time?

RobM99

Oil companies make the majority of their profit from crude oil extraction, prices set by OPEC and "special products" e.g. feedstock to tyre manufacturers and the printing industry. Profit on petrol is small per litre but big overall because of the volume sold.  Refineries are hugely costly to run and maintain.

The bit what rattles my cage - VAT is charged on top of fuel duty so we pay tax on tax!

LittleMissDetermined

MouldyOldDough said:

BP made £4.9billion profit in the first 3 months of this year

Shell made £7.3 billion in the same period – that’s over £500 per household, just from these two companies in just three months

They're not just UK companies so you can't use the £500 per household assumption.  I agree they're making astonishing profit but it's not as simple as you make it out to be. 

[Deleted User]

I wish governments were more precise with helping those who need it the most. With leaps and bounds in tech hardware and software I thought we could have arrived at a system where money could be given quick to those who need it. Don't know if its just a lack of vision, drive and bureaucracy

The £150 rebate just thrown out to everyone was typical Gov being wasteful 

mark_cycling00

1) BP made a loss of $20 billion in the first 3 months of the year. 
2) 90% of Shell's operations are outside the UK, not at your expense. Are you sure that the UK government can take the profits earned by Shell's operations in Nigeria and south america?

The last time the government imposed a "windfall" tax on energy (2011) they taxed north-sea oil and gas exploration at 81%. £60bn investment in new gas supplies was cancelled, BP, Shell etc closed 60 wells because they become unprofitable and thus we had to start importing gas from Russia. But you got 1p off a litre of petrol. 

MattMattMattUK

These are global companies and those are those global pre-tax, pre-exceptional profits. Both have huge losses banked from exiting Russian operations and both will be able to avoid this windfall tax by bringing forward expenditure into the relevant tax years. The profit figures also have no "per household" basis as they do not sell to households, that profit is made from exploration, extraction and refining. 

This windfall tax is an idiotic idea designed to placate an uneducated public, it will generate little revenue and is far from a rational option. 

agentcain

mark_cycling00 said:

1) BP made a loss of $20 billion in the first 3 months of the year. 
2) 90% of Shell's operations are outside the UK, not at your expense. Are you sure that the UK government can take the profits earned by Shell's operations in Nigeria and south america?

The last time the government imposed a "windfall" tax on energy (2011) they taxed north-sea oil and gas exploration at 81%. £60bn investment in new gas supplies was cancelled, BP, Shell etc closed 60 wells because they become unprofitable and thus we had to start importing gas from Russia. But you got 1p off a litre of petrol. 

So it seems that imposing a windfall tax will result in what the green loonies desire; a reduction of investment into oil exploitation. Given the current agenda, it seems to me that a windfall tax was always planned :P.

MouldyOldDough

So the government is trying to make us forget about partygate by offering us all (?) up to £850 in payments to compensate for price rises

Its blatant

£650 to lowest income

£150 to disabled

£300 to pensioners

£400 to everyone

How do they expect us to react ?

Boris should just apologise rather than put the UK even further in to debt

And what about disabled, low income, over 65's - will they get the whole lot ?

DE_612183

MouldyOldDough said:

So the government is trying to make us forget about partygate by offering us all (?) up to £850 in payments to compensate for price rises

Its blatant

£650 to lowest income

£150 to disabled

£300 to pensioners

£400 to everyone

How do they expect us to react ?

Boris should just apologise rather than put the UK even further in to debt

And what about disabled, low income, over 65's - will they get the whole lot ?

isn't he raising the money from a windfall tax - so no debt?

[Deleted User]

MouldyOldDough said:

So the government is trying to make us forget about partygate by offering us all (?) up to £850 in payments to compensate for price rises

Its blatant

£650 to lowest income

£150 to disabled

£300 to pensioners

£400 to everyone

How do they expect us to react ?

Boris should just apologise rather than put the UK even further in to debt

Unless you can fire Boris directly you didn’t really have much say one way or the another on how he should react to partygate 

Also don’t know what you mean he should apologise as if that will magically make it all go away. End of the day you don’t have to forget about it you can hold him accountable by not voting Tory in council elections or at the general election.