Home » UK Business News » BP doubles profit to £7.1 billion as oil and gas prices remain high

BP doubles profit to £7.1 billion as oil and gas prices remain high

By Hugh Fort in UK Business News, posted November 1, 2022

BP has reported another massive profit for the period between July and September of £7.1billion ($8.2 billion).

The BBC reports the company has doubled its profit for the same period last year.

The company is set to pay around $800 million to the UK government in a windfall tax, but the huge gains are likely to prompt more calls for further taxation.

Tory MP Alok Sharma, who is the UK's COP president, tweeted: "We need to raise more money from a windfall tax on oil and gas companies and actively encourage them to invest in renewables."

Increasing the windfall tax is being discussed ahead of Chancellor Jeremy Hunt's Autumn Statement on Thursday, November 17.

The government is facing a £50 billion black hole in public finances it needs to fill - which is likely to mean spending cuts and tax rises for people in the UK.

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Nick Butler, a former BP executive who is now a visiting professor at King's College London, told the BBC's Today programme: "They have to balance what they pay in tax, what they invest in the future and what they pay back to shareholders.

"I think the next tax squeeze will come on the electricity retailers who haven't been subjected to it yet.

"But if BP has to pay more in tax I think their shareholders will have to pick up part of the pain."

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