Pressure is mounting on Boris Johnson to impose a windfall tax on energy firms after Shell announced profits of £14billion on the day millions of people learned their electricity and gas bills are set to rocket.
Campaigners said a windfall tax on the energy firms could raise almost £4bn to help families struggling in the cost-of-living crisis.
Shell boss Ben van Beurden, who has earned £70million in seven years as its CEO, promised shareholders a bumper dividend, insisting it was “appropriate”, and whining that Shell’s household energy supply arm was loss-making and so: “Even for us it is tough.”
But the sky-high wholesale gas prices which are hammering households also helped Shell rake in £4.7bn profit in just three months, taking the total profit for 2021 to £14.2bn.
Kate Blagojevic, of Greenpeace UK, said: “Our continued dependence on fossil fuels is a goldmine for companies like Shell and a scourge for bill payers and the planet.
“While Shell is quadrupling its profits off the back of record-high gas prices, millions of households are left with cold homes and astronomic bills.” Spain introduced a windfall tax in September which is expected to raise about £1.7billion to soften the blow on households.
Labour has also proposed a one-off windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas profits.
Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “Labour would raise money to keep bills low through a one-off windfall tax on oil and gas profits, to support all households, with households typically getting £200 off their bills.”
Shell boss Ben van Beurden’s earnings since he took over as CEO in 2014 would be enough to cover the cost of next year’s £693 energy hike for more than 100,000 households.
His personal wealth continues to soar. His shareholding of more than 1.7 million Shell shares were worth £29m at the start of the year. By the close of trading today they were worth more than £33m.
The company’s announcement of dividend payouts to shareholders naturally includes 63-year-old Mr van Beurden himself.
In another boost to shareholders, Shell confirmed it would buy back £6.3bn worth of shares in the first half of this year.
Mr van Beurden has described 2021 as a “momentous” year for Shell, providing “significant shareholder distributions”.
Today he insisted he “completely” understood concerns about rocketing energy bills.
But he said there was an “extraordinary situation globally”, with booming demand for energy as economies emerge from Covid lockdowns. He said Shell’s household energy supply arm was loss-making “so we are not exempt”. Payouts to shareholders had been cut in previous years so were “appropriate” now.
Bernardus Cornelis Adriana Margriet van Beurden worked his way up after joining Shell from university in 1983.
The Dutch national is listed at Companies House as being resident in Holland, but is understood to be property hunting in the UK after the firm’s decision to move Shell’s HQ from the Netherlands to London. His exclusive estate in the Hague, with a nine-bedroom mansion, guest quarters, sauna and gym, is for sale at £5.5m.
In 2014, the year van Beurden became CEO, he moved his Australian wife Stacey and four children to the Hague from their home in West London, which sold for £3m.
The new pad in Wassenaar set him back £3.3m at the time and is 100 years old. The property is described as having a lawn like a “billiard table”, sauna, marble floors and a pond. But despite extensive renovations, the house has the lowest G energy rating and so needs a new owner with deep pockets to pay the heating bill.
In a video shared in 2014, van Beurden was seen taking part in the “ice bucket challenge”. The water was poured by his two young daughters from Veuve Clicquot champagne coolers.
Since 2014, van Beurden has earned £70,176,000, according to Shell’s accounts.
2020, the last year for which his earnings are known, was one of his least profitable. He made £5.2m. Two years earlier, he received £17.8m.
He has amassed a 1.7m shareholding. Based on last year’s payouts, he would have received around £830,000, but pre-pandemic dividends could have netted him around £2.5m a year.
