Environmental campaigners and politicians are demanding that oil companies pay windfall taxes after Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil Corp. announced quarterly profits of multibillion-dollars.
Shell announced a 68 per cent increase in third-quarter earnings amounting to £4.1 billion. These results included the costs of the recent US hurricanes from which it expected get a $350m bill, although most of this is insured. The chief executive of Shell, Jeroen van der Veer, said: "Our operational performance is paying off with good results." Meanwhile, Exxon Mobil increased its quarterly profits by 75 per cent to ₤5.6 billion.
On the other hand, the activists were not humoured. They demanded explanation from the industry as to why they charged high prices. They also wanted the oil companies to build refineries.
"Shell is profiting from climate change, profiting from pollution and damaging the lives of communities around the world. This is simply unacceptable for a company that claims to be responsible. The Government must not sit back and let this happen. It must curb oil company profits, but also demand higher standards from UK companies operating overseas," said Craig Bennett, a campaigner with Friends of the Earth.
The US Energy Secretary, Sam Bodman, accusing the oil companies told the Senate's energy committee: "These companies are turning in record profits. They have a responsibility to expand refining capacity."
Marathon Oil Corp. and Shell have addressed the refinery issue in their earnings. Marathon, whose profit rose threefold to $770 million through $17 billion sales, announced that $2.2 billion would be spent to expand its Garyville, La., plant. The capacity there would be boosted by more than 70 percent to process 425,000 barrels of crude a day. And Shell said that through Motiva partnership with Saudi Aramco, it is considering an expansion of Gulf Coast refinery of 300,000 barrels per day.
Exxon Mobil had gone on record in the past saying that it had no plans for big refining projects in the U.S. In fact, no refinery has been built in the United States for decades now. The oil industry has attributed it to environmental restrictions and neighbourhood opposition as the major reasons.
Jamie Court, president of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights on Thursday called on the government to press Exxon Mobil to invest in new refineries.
Posted
on : Sat, 29 Oct 2005 00:35 GMT | Business News
By : Chris Rowe
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