Oil and gas producers' profits are soaring; British families' energy bills are rocketing. In one sense, there's a parallel there, but only one of those two groups is getting better off.
Shell and BP have both, in recent days, announced record underlying profits, with wholesale energy prices at record highs. That means the companies drilling for oil and gas are getting huge sums when they sell it on to the suppliers, such as British Gas, who pipe the fuel into our homes.
That means the suppliers' costs have soared, and they are then passing those costs on to the consumer - making us all worse off. The energy price cap rose 54 per cent to a record high of £1,971 in April, and it's predicted to rise again in October, probably to around £2,500 per year.
