Shell Tees Up a £1.7 B Windfall Tax Wave
Picture this: a giant oil company on the South Coast of the UK suddenly decides it wants to give the government a hearty cheque. That’s exactly what Shell is doing, with a tidy pay‑out of roughly £1.7 billion in windfall taxes for the last quarter of 2022.
Why the Big Pay‑Out?
In October, Shell announced a hefty investment into the North Sea “Exploration and Production”. That move meant it could drop out of the dreaded UK windfall tax dance—at least for a while—thanks to an 80% investment allowance. But just as the holidays approached, the charges crept up.
- Budget 2022 (Autumn) – Jeremy Hunt lifts the windfall tax on oil & gas from 25 % to 35 %.
- Shell’s quarterly profit dipped, but the tax bite on earnings remained painfully real.
The Numbers in a Nutshell
For the January‑March 2022 quarter:
- Adjusted earnings shot up to $9.5 billion—pretty impressive on paper, but it’s still a fall from the previous quarter.
- The windfall tax hit adds almost £1.7 billion to the government’s coffers.
What’s Next?
Shell will lay out the full 2022 financial year’s figures on 2 February. In the meantime, the bubble‑up in tax shows that even the biggest names in the industry can’t escape the government’s hawk‑ey eye on profits.
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