BP banks £4.2bn as it prepares to quit the North Sea

Just days after threatening to sell its North Sea operations, BP has been criticised after revealing its second quarter profits have increased by around 78% to £4.2 billion compared with the previous three months.

The sharp jump in profits, which represent a 140% year on year increase, are due to rising prices during the Iran war.

A spokesperson for the End Fuel Poverty Coalition said:

“The price shock profiteers have banked more billions from a crisis that has created real hardship for millions of households. And now BP’s next move is to look to cash in and walk away from a North Sea where 90% of commercially viable fossil fuels have been extracted and the profits banked.

“The lesson is not to hand yet more tax breaks to an industry posting billions in profit every quarter, but to use Windfall Tax receipts to clear the record energy debt households built up during the crisis.

“As bills remain far above pre-crisis levels, the route out of crisis means breaking the link between electricity prices and volatile gas, reforming electricity prices and providing support for people to improve their homes. In the meantime, we ask Ministers to also provide more support by further expanding the Warm Homes Discount and reforming Cold Weather Payments.”

Despite the gas in the North Sea expected to run out by 2050, US President Donald Trump backed the billionaires agenda overnight claiming that the UK “could give away free energy if you’d open up the North Sea… for another 500 years, maybe more, probably 1,000 years.”

The Coalition spokesperson commented:

“The claim that more drilling will cut household bills is a fantasy that has been sold before, and it has never once brought a bill down. Gas from the North Sea is sold at the global market price, so every new licence keeps families locked on the same gas price rollercoaster rather than shielding them from it.

“Donald Trump’s drill more, bill more approach would do nothing for the millions of people who cannot afford to heat their homes. The only route to lower, more stable bills is a homegrown, renewables-led system, backed by real support for households struggling right now.”