WITH cash-strapped households facing record energy costs, oil giants BP and Shell have banked combined profits in the last three months totalling more than it takes to run the entire Northern Ireland economy in a year.
BP said second-quarter profits more than trebled to $8.5 billion (£6.9 billion) during April May and June as it reaped the benefits of soaring oil and gas prices.
It was BP's biggest quarterly profit for 14 years and more than triple the amount it made in the same period last year.
Last month its rival Shell also reported strong results, with second quarter profits of $11.5bn (£9bn).
To put those heady numbers in context, the Barnett-based funding for the Stormont Executive is currently running at £15 billion a year.
The huge increase in profits has been fuelled by higher prices for oil and gas, which have risen sharply due to the war in Ukraine, and since the start of this year Russia has cut supplies to Europe following the invasion, with fears mounting that it may switch off the taps altogether.
But the profits have been branded as "an insult" to people struggling to pay their energy bills, which are currently rising 23 times faster than wages, and working people are facing the longest and harshest salary squeeze in modern history.
BP chief executive Bernard Looney said: "Today's results show that we continue to perform while transforming.
"Our people have continued to work hard throughout the quarter helping to solve the energy trilemma - secure, affordable and lower carbon energy.
"We do this by providing the oil and gas the world needs today - while at the same time, investing to accelerate the energy transition."
Doug Parr from Greenpeace said: "While households are being plunged into poverty with knock-on impacts for the whole economy, fossil fuel companies are laughing all the way to the bank, and the government is failing the UK and the climate in its hour of need.
"Government must bring in a proper windfall tax on these monster profits and stop giving companies massive tax breaks on destructive new fossil fuel investments.
"This could unlock billions of pounds to alleviate household bills and fund a nationwide roll-out of home insulation which would keep bills low for good and get our UK fossil gas use under control."
The UK government is introducing a windfall tax on the profits of energy companies, but it has faced criticism for giving strong incentives to allow companies to invest in oil and gas, while there are no tax incentives in the policy for green investment.
