SHELL has seen record annual profits since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The oil giant’s profits hit £32.2bn last year: double the previous year’s tally, and the highest in its 115-year history.
Opposition parties have described the profit levels as “outrageous” and are calling for the planned increase in the energy price cap — due this April — to be spiked.
The profit announcement comes as some 14,000 people from two Nigerian communities are taking Shell to London’s High Court for allegedly polluting water sources and destroying their way of life.
![Protest against Shell in Nigeria](https://bv.world/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/ShellNigeriaProtestAmnesty.jpg)
Inhabitants of the Niger delta area of Ogale, mostly farmers, have joined forces with 2,000 members of a fishing community from the Bille region. There are now more than 13,600 individual claims, some by churches and schools, against Shell. The claimants want a clean-up by the company and compensation for the loss of livelihood.
Shell says the communities have “no legal standing” to force a clean-up operation because of the time between the spills and the lodging of the claims.
It claims organised gangs stealing oil were responsible for many of the spills.