The optics, as the presentational experts say, are terrible.
Just as average domestic energy bills are spiralling up towards the £4,000-a-year mark, with higher mortgages, taxes, fuel and food bills on top, a couple of fossil fuel giants report record profits. And by “record” is meant a fivefold increase for Centrica, the owner of British Gas, over the first half of the year; and in the case of Royal Dutch Shell, albeit on a global basis, cash is being spun off at a rate of £9.4bn over the second quarter of the year alone – more than double last year’s figures.
There are caveats. Like in so many industries, business was not so easy during the pandemic, and the money is being made in the “upstream”, or wholesale, end – getting the oil and gas out of the ground and selling it on.
