Shell has reported better than expected profits of $6.9bn (£5bn) after its oil traders reaped the benefits of soaring energy prices during the war in Iran, angering climate campaigners.
Europe’s biggest oil and gas company posted a 115% jump in first-quarter profits from the $3.2bn reported in the last three months of 2025.
The profits easily surpassed the $6.4bn forecast by City analysts, and were 24% up on the $5.6bn profit recorded in the same period a year earlier.
Shell’s chief executive, Wael Sawan, said the company’s profits had been gained through its “relentless focus on operational performance in a quarter marked by unprecedented disruption in global energy markets”.
In addition to windfall profits, the war will deliver a 5% dividend hike for Shell’s investors. The company’s chief financial officer, Sinead Gorman, said shareholder payouts reflected the “confidence we have in the long-term cash flows of the company”.
The environmental campaigner and broadcaster Chris Packham accused the company of “profiting from illegal wars and burning up our one and only home” in a post on X, adding: “What a lovely company.”
The disruption to oil and gas flows through the strait of Hormuz caused the international crude price to climb from about $61 a barrel in January to highs of $119 at the end of March and again at the end of April.
Oil prices briefly dropped below $100 a barrel on Wednesday on hopes of a peace deal between the US and Iran, although the market price remains more than 50% higher than last year. On Thursday, Brent crude again dropped below the 100 threshold to just under $98.
The increase in oil prices helped BP, which last week reported better than expected profits of $3.2bn for the first quarter, more than double the $1.38bn it made in the same period last year.
The company credited “exceptional oil trading” for its highest quarterly profit since 2023, leading to an immediate backlash from campaign groups and calls for tougher windfall taxes on fossil fuel profits.
Protesters from the campaign group Fossil Free London gathered outside Shell’s London headquarters dressed as oil executives to protest against the company’s “blood money” profits from the conflict that has claimed the lives of thousands of people.
Shell’s rising profits were capped by a fall in its oil and gas production after its Pearl gas plant in Qatar sustained serious damage from a drone attack. Overall Shell’s oil and gas output fell 4%, and repairs to the plant are expected to take about a year.
The windfall profits reignited calls for taxes to fund support for the households hardest hit by the rise in costs.
Danny Gross, a climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: “Fossil fuel giants are pocketing monstrous profits while drivers are being squeezed at the petrol pump and households are set to pay higher energy bills.
“Our fossil fuel-reliant energy system siphons money away from ordinary people to the rich and powerful.
“The answer is clear: strengthen the windfall tax on these indefensible profits and break our dependence on fossil fuels by powering our economy with homegrown renewables. This would lower energy bills, strengthen the UK’s energy security and protect us all from future energy price spikes.”
Anne Jellema, the executive director of the climate campaign group 350.org, said: “While people around the world struggle with soaring energy costs, Shell is raking in billions in added profit. The same crisis that is driving these windfalls is pushing millions closer to hunger and hardship.
“Governments must act now to tax these excess profits and use the money to protect vulnerable households and expand affordable, homegrown renewable energy.”
