Not everyone is penny pinching at the gas pump these days — oil titans Shell and Paris-based TotalEnergies both reported record quarterly profits on Thursday, more than doubling their earnings from a year prior. TotalEnergies shared a profit of $9.9 billion on Thursday while Shell announced adjusted earnings of $9.45 billion, a couple billion shy of their $11.5 billion earnings last quarter. The energy giants are benefitting from high petrol prices and a gas squeeze in Eastern Europe, where Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has all but halted the continent’s primary fuel lines. Shell, meanwhile, has yet to pay the U.K.’s “Windfall” tax on oil and gas profits, proposed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak back in May when he was Chancellor. “As millions of families struggle with their energy bills, the fact that Shell recorded the second highest quarterly profits in the company's history is further proof that we need a proper windfall tax to make the energy companies pay their fair share,” Labour MP Ed Miliband said.
