BP and Shell make 3.3 million pounds every hour!

BP and Shell make 3.3 million pounds every hour!

MOTORISTS reacted with fury yesterday when oil companies BP and Shell announced profits of £3.3million an hour for the first three months of this year.

With drivers facing misery at the pumps, the firms thanked rising oil prices for combined profits of £7.2billion in the first quarter.

Share prices gained around six per cent because of the higher than expected profits.

But if shareholders and the City were delighted, those supporting hard-pressed motorists were dismayed.

In the last 10 days alone, unleaded has risen by an average 1.6p per litre and diesel has surged by 2p a litre.

AA president Edmund King said: “It’s the ordinary motorist that’s bearing the brunt of this while the oil companies and the Government are laughing all the way to the bank.”

He called on the oil companies to reinvest more of their profits into drilling and refining to boost oil supplies and bring down petrol prices.

Lib Dem environment spokesman Steve Webb called on the Government to step in, saying: “Although it can’t control global oil prices, it can protect people from being ripped off at the petrol pumps by the fuel companies.”

Both oil companies argued that while record oil prices inflated returns at their exploration and production divisions, they endured tougher conditions in their refining and marketing sectors.

Shell and BP insisted they already pay high levels of tax to the Treasury while also investing a similar sum to their annual profits in finding new sources of oil and gas.

Cold-blooded gluttonous pigs!!!