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Rising oil price benefits Shell Rising prices boost Shell and BP
(20 minutes later)
Oil firm Royal Dutch Shell says it made first quarter profits of $7.8bn (£3.9bn), up from $6.9bn a year ago. Oil firms Royal Dutch Shell and BP have seen first quarter profits boom thanks to the rising price of oil, which is close to $120 a barrel.
It comes three months after the Anglo Dutch oil firm reported annual profits of $27.56bn (£13.9bn), a record for a UK-listed company. Shell made profits of $7.8bn (£3.9bn) in the first three months of the year, up from $6.9bn a year ago.
The firm has benefited from the rising price of oil, which is closing in on $120 a barrel, up from $91 in January. And rival BP saw its profits rise 48% to $6.6bn (£3.31bn), from $4.4bn.
Chief executive Jeroen van der Veer said he would continue to grow the firm after a "good operating performance". The figures come after Anglo-Dutch firm Shell reported annual profits in January of $27.56bn (£13.9bn), a record for a UK-listed company.
Shell chief executive Jeroen van der Veer said he would continue to grow the firm after a "good operating performance".
Shell shares are listed in the UK and the Netherlands, while the company's headquarters are in The Hague.Shell shares are listed in the UK and the Netherlands, while the company's headquarters are in The Hague.
Simon Wardell, oil analyst at Global Insight, said Shell had pumped slightly less oil this year compared to 2007. The quarterly results come as a strike by oil workers at the Grangemouth refinery in Scotland came to an end.
And he said the rising price of petrol was "predominantly down to high oil prices". The stoppage had disrupted fuel supplies and halted much of the UK's North Sea oil production.
'Oil scarcity'
Simon Wardell, oil analyst at Global Insight, said the rising price of petrol was "predominantly down to high oil prices".
"Oil prices are high because of the weak dollar and because reserves are under pressure, the spare capacity margin is narrowing, Opec does not have a great deal more oil to pump," he said."Oil prices are high because of the weak dollar and because reserves are under pressure, the spare capacity margin is narrowing, Opec does not have a great deal more oil to pump," he said.
"That scarcity is reflected in the high oil prices.""That scarcity is reflected in the high oil prices."
But he said that oil firms could not sit back and just watch the profits flow in.But he said that oil firms could not sit back and just watch the profits flow in.
"Oil firms have to think about the long-term investment, and what prices might be in the future.""Oil firms have to think about the long-term investment, and what prices might be in the future."