Only in the UK

[JamieBeeston]

So shell announce £13.9bn profits this year, about £440 a second (before interest!)

So whats the BBCs reaction? one of congratulations for a British company excelling? one of compliment? no

BBC said:

there are talks about imposing a windfall tax on your excessive profits.... surely you cant argue at that can you?

I recall when Labia did this last time on BT, and then BT promptly fell over within a year.

[Podie]

Stuff here JB - http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

article said:

‘Shell shareholders are doing very nicely whilst the rest of us, the stakeholders, are paying the price and struggling,’ said Mr. Woodley.

so the shareholders have the risk…


I agree with you BTW.

[JamieBeeston]

hehe

I did think about posting it in P&P, but wanted to talk more on the Business side, the Windfall tax.. as opposed to the usual rhetoric from the haters about the 'fat cat capitalist pigs... death to their childrenssss!!!111 etc!

Suppose I could go over there and poke the hornets nest some anyway

[Podie]

I don't know what goes on - why can't we be pleased that one sector if UK industry is doing well?

Better watch yuor accounts JB, you'll be next!

[Podie]

Actually, this thread might float you boat then - http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[edb49]

I'm not quite sure Shell deserve all the plaudits they get, but I may be miles off the mark with this.

Oil price has gone up massively in the last 12 months. I think the price you see on the market today is for delivery in 6 months, so I assume quite a bit of the price rises aren't incoporated into Shell's end of year accounts.

Shell (again, I assume) isn't part of the OPEC cartel, but it's production is so irrelevant in the grand scheme of things it benefits from the price increases that OPEC triggers.

Sooo.... Shell's north sea oil gets sold for $100/barrel because of cartel behaviour. The oil drilling costs are not going to be much different from when Shell was getting $50/barrel. So they have a big leap in profits due to a cartel. :s

Someone please correct me if I'm miles off!

[JamieBeeston]

No,

You're probably near the mark..

but the north sea oil is already taxed at 50% corp tax, and there's bugger all left in real terms there, so they need to spunk billions exploring elsewhere..

As the guy said, 90% of their profit is from outside the UK..

Are they capitalising on the market.. sure..
Does this mean they're crap otherwise... no..
Are they the best thing since sliced bread.... no..

Doesnt stop them reporting the largest profit EVER, and helping to keep the poor spongers in free house, food and fags!

[JamieBeeston]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I think we're all literate in here to realise that Shell arent the reason fuel prices are what they are ...

I was more interested in opinions about the alleged attempt at the govt to penalise and softly rape another UK institution which has done well.

J

[dcb]

JamieBeeston said:

Doesnt stop them reporting the largest profit EVER, and helping to keep the poor spongers in free house, food and fags!

The BBC "news service" reported that about a billion
quid of the 14 billion will go in tax.

Which sounds a lot of spondulicks for the current
shower in power to waste on various daft schemes,
but is only about 7% in reality.

I note with interest that we are very likely
to miss our 2010 CO2 reduction targets, so
maybe Gordon Brown have a go at doing something
about that with the billion.

[JamieBeeston]

Yes, maybe only £1bn goes to the UK.. but how much of it goes elsewhere to over governments..

and from what he was saying on TV today about £13bn was reinvested, and another £6bn went in dividends...

You need to keep the shareholders happy, else noone will invest!

[rpguk]

JamieBeeston said:

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I think we're all literate in here to realise that Shell arent the reason fuel prices are what they are ...

I was more interested in opinions about the alleged attempt at the govt to penalise and softly rape another UK institution which has done well.

J

It's one of those cases where people hear the name, link it with the domestic retail market and link the massive profits with their massive receipt totals.

It works well for the government as the burden of high fuel prices has a new villain (of course as petrolheads we are aware of the cost/tax ratio).

However, I've not seen anything to suggest the treasury are thinking of a windfall tax. Only the usual socialist quarters.

Unless the profit was generated primarily in the domestic market I don't think they'd even try it.

(by the way none of that was aimed at you fesuvious!)

Edited by rpguk on Friday 1st February 03:20