£32bn SHELL PROFITS FUEL NEW TAX STORM

£1,000-A-SECOND HAUL SPARKS CALLS FOR FRESH WINDFALL LEVY ON GIANTS | Sunak has let energy giants off the hook over tax, says Miliband

- Jonathan Prynn, David Bond, Daniel O’Boyle

SHELL was engulfed in a new windfall tax furore today as it revealed that soaring oil and gas prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had sent its profits to a record £32.2 billion.

The vast profits — equivalent to just over £1,000 a second — were among the biggest ever made by a British company and the largest in Shell’s 115-year history.

They immediately led to demands for a bigger levy on energy giants to help fund extra support for families and businesses struggling with the cost-of-living crisis.

Shell said it paid £100 million in UK tax in 2022 and expected to pay £405 million this year. Opposition politicians seized on the vast profits with Ed Miliband, Labour’s shadow climate and net zero secretary, labelling them the “windfalls of war”.

By another measure of profit often used in the City known as EBITDA, Shell made £68.3 billion.

Rishi Sunak, who was marking his first 100 days as Prime Minister today, first imposed a windfall tax on oil and gas producers operating in the UK and the North Sea in May last year, a few months after Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine.