Oil and gas firms are still making a killing – and No 10 is letting them

Shell has paid nothing so far under the windfall tax, despite making record global profits. Photograph: Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images

It is Christmas every day for oil and gas companies, and their shareholders and executives are laughing all the way to the bank, leaving the rest of us to pick up the cost in higher energy prices, inflation, bankruptcies and a deepening cost of living crisis.

Shell’s third-quarter profits have more than doubled to $9.5bn (£8.2bn) and add up to a whopping $30bn so far this year. Most of the additional profit is not made by sudden extra investment or effort. The cost of producing oil and gas has not changed much, but the selling price has.