Royal Dutch Shell Announces Highest Profits

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has announced the highest profits in Britain's corporate history last year of $22.94 billion.

The record annual profit, which was broken down by Sky news on Thursday to an equivalent of 1.5 million pounds (about 2.65 million dollars) an hour, increased by one-third from 2004, when the cost of crude jumped from below $45 a barrel to a record high of more than $70.

Most of the Anglo-Dutch energy giant's profits come from extracting oil and gas out of the ground.

The profits were boosted by the soaring crude oil prices as a result of high world demand and political tensions in some oil-producing countries.