Shell, BP Hit Profit Records

Royal Dutch Shell and BP have posted record profits for the first quarter of 2008, thanks to the rising price of oil, which is currently almost $120 per barrel.

Shell posted profits of $7.8bn, up from $6.9bn in 2007, and BP made $6.5bn, a huge rise of 48 per cent over last year.

The figures were announced lorry drivers travelled into central London to protest against the price of diesel, which has risen a massive 30 per cent over the last year.

Organised by TransAction 2007, one of the groups behind the 2000 fuel protests, the demonstration will see dozens of truckers gathering at Park Lane before handing a coffin that they say represents hundreds of haulage firms to the Houses of Parliament.

TransAction claims that fuel now costs a typical articulated lorry up to £1000 per week. The British firms’ struggle is made worse, says TransAction, by foreign lorry drivers who can take advantage of cheaper fuel in Europe.

This protest comes just as the strike at the Scottish Grangemouth refinery, which is responsible for producing a third of the UK’s oil, came to an end.

It is expected to be a week before the plant is fully operational again, though the Unite union responsible for the strike has warned that further industrial action could take place.