Oil giant Shell has added almost 10 billion dollars in extra profit while households struggle to pay bills.
Shell's adjusted earnings more than doubled to 9.5 billion dollars (£8.2 billion) in the three months to the end of September when compared with the previous years.
Profits are down compared to Shell's second quarter earlier in 2022, when it made 11.5 billion dollars (£9.9 billion), as the price of oil slowly began to fall after months of multi-year highs due to the war in Ukraine.
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But Shell is on course for its most profitable year ever unless there is a major collapse in oil and gas prices before 2023. It had already benefitted from economies reopening following Coronavirus shutdowns.
“We are delivering robust results at a time of ongoing volatility in global energy markets,” said chief executive Ben van Beurden.
Meanwhile, households face a Cost of Living Crisis and are struggling to pay bills following a rise in the energy price cap.
The months-long energy crisis led then Chancellor Rishi Sunak in May to introduce a windfall tax on oil and gas companies operating in the North Sea.
But that has not stopped Shell from handing billions of dollars to its shareholders this year.
On Thursday it announced plans to return another four billion dollars (£3.5 billion) to shareholders by buying back shares over the next three months, and said it would also hike the dividend by 15%.
It brings the total payout to Shell shareholders to 26 billion dollars (£22.4 billion) so far this year.
Mr van Beurden said: “We continue to strengthen Shell’s portfolio through disciplined investment and transform the company for a low-carbon future.
“At the same time we are working closely with governments and customers to address their short and long-term energy needs.
“Today we are announcing a new share buyback programme resulting in an additional four billion dollars of distributions, which we expect to complete by our Q4 (fourth quarter) 2022 results announcement.”
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