The UK Government has been called on to impose a fresh windfall tax on energy giants after Shell recorded the largest profit in its 115-year history.
SNP, Labour, Greens and the Lib Dems have all urged the Conservative Government to expand its windfall tax after the energy company announced that its 2022 profits had rocketed to £68.1billion.
Shell have benefitted from increased energy costs following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Bumper profits by producers in 2022 prompted the Government to launch a windfall tax, called the Energy Profits Levy.
Shell said it paid £1.5 billion in windfall tax charges to the UK and EU.
But opposition parties have said that the windfall tax does not go far enough. An investment incentive loophole allows oil and gas firms to claw back more than 91 per cent of their capital investment in the form of tax relief.
The campaign group End Fuel Poverty Coalition said in December that ending the loophole would have generated at least £22bn in additional revenue.
The Prime Minister's Official spokesperson said on Thursday that he was "not aware of any plans to expand" the windfall tax.
SNP energy spokesman Alan Brown said that the Government should expand the windfall tax and use the money to reduce household energy costs.
Brown said: "The Tory government must scrap its outrageous plan to raise the energy bill price cap again in April - and guarantee the Energy Bill Support Scheme payments for households will continue.
"People will feel sick that, instead of helping ordinary families, the Tories are allowing big energy companies to make record profits and are forcing taxpayers to subsidise shareholders.
"The Chancellor should follow the lead of other countries by taxing share buy backs, and expanding the windfall tax, to fund support for households.
"Scotland is an energy-rich country. With the full powers of independence we can escape Westminster control, deliver energy security and bring household bills down permanently."
Labour's Shadow Scottish Secretary Ian Murray said that Shell's profits showed that the current windfall tax is "a sham".
He said: "These eye-watering record profits are driven by the energy crisis and reflected in the energy bills that far too many Scots can’t afford.
"The Prime Minister's pretend windfall tax is a sham and we need a proper windfall tax on these excess profits to help people with their bills.
"This government want you to pay when others profiting from this crisis need to put more into the pot.”
The Scottish Greens energy and environment spokesperson Mark Ruskell called the profits "obscene" and said that investment in renewables was key to bringing down energy bills.
Ruskell said: “Many will be sickened and angry by the obscene level of profits reported by Shell and the other oil and gas giants, who have enriched themselves at the cost of our planet.
"There can be no justification for a system that allows this kind of profiteering, especially when so many are suffering. It is a sign of how broken things add and why they need to change.
"It underlines exactly why we need to break the link between fossil fuel prices and bills, and support the many households and families who have been plunged into fuel poverty over the last 12 months.
“With the climate emergency worsening, we don’t have time to waste. Our world is on fire. A windfall tax full of loopholes is not enough. We need action from every government and a generation-defining investment in renewables.
“Renewable energy is the cheapest and cleanest energy available. If we are to build a cleaner, greener and better future then that is what we need to be investing in. We must move on from oil and gas and finally start leaving it in the ground."
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey also called Shell's profits "outrageous".
Davey said: “No company should be making these kind of outrageous profits out of Putin's illegal invasion of Ukraine.
“Rishi Sunak was warned as chancellor and now as Prime Minister that we need a proper windfall tax on companies like Shell and he has failed to take action.
“Families across the country are struggling to heat their homes and feed their families and this government turns round and says, there is nothing we can do.
“They must tax the oil and gas companies properly and at the very least ensure that energy bills don’t rise yet again in April.”
A Treasury spokesperson said: “The Energy Profits Levy strikes a balance between funding cost of living support while encouraging investment in order to bolster the UK’s energy security.
“We have been clear that we want to encourage reinvestment of the sector’s profits to support the economy, jobs, and our energy security, which is why the more investment a firm makes into the UK, the less tax they will pay.”
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