PURE GREED: How fatcat energy bosses will bank a staggering £15 MILLION as terrified hard-up Brits choose heating or eating
IT is High Noon for the energy fatcats today as they drag their expensively-dressed behinds into showdown talks with the Chancellor.
As The Sun revealed yesterday, Nadhim Zahawi has summoned gas and electricity bosses in to explain just how much cash they are making out of the energy crisis.
It comes as energy experts at Auxilione revealed energy bills could reach over £5,000 next year and Martin Lewis warned the crisis could put lives at risk.
Zahawi and Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng wil also demand to know what investment they plan to make with their soaring profits.
They may not all be there in person but there’s little doubt which three bosses are facing the brunt of the public’s fury — Centrica’s Chris O’Shea, Shell’s Ben van Beurden and Bernard Looney of BP.
Combined, the three executives earn more than £15million a year, thanks to extraordinary profits from the sky-high prices of fuel.
The biggest earner is Irish businessman Looney, who is set to make a staggering £11.4million this year.
Late last year, after higher oil and gas prices boosted BP’s profits, he caused outrage when he said of the company: “When the market is strong, when oil prices are strong and when gas prices are strong, this is literally a cash machine.”
There has been further controversy over his and BP’s relationship with Russian state-owned energy giant Rosneft after Russia invaded Ukraine, and until February he was on Rosneft’s board.
Dutch executive van Beurden, who joined Shell in 1983, earns £1.33million a year, plus a £2.15million bonus.
He is reportedly selling his £5.2million eight-bed mansion in Holland to move to the UK.
Mansion-owning Shell boss dismisses cost of living crisis while raking in record profits since Ukraine war
THE mega-rich boss of Shell sparked outrage yesterday by shrugging off the fears of consumers struggling with rocketing fuel bills.
Fat cat Ben van Beurden’s company made £9.5billion profit in the past three months alone — more than double the same period last year — on the back of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Sun asked him how he could justify this the day after Brits learned energy bills could hit almost £4,000 next year.
The Dutchman, on £6.2million a year, said: “We cannot perform miracles. I’m very mindful that is a difficult message to hear, but it is what it is”. He added only a “miracle” could help consumers with their soaring bills.
Shell not only rakes in cash from forecourt sales. It produces and imports oil and gas which is then sold to energy companies, manufacturers and industries.
The firm has profited so much from rising prices that it will hand £6.5billion to shareholders — and potentially even more later this year.
Van Beurden said: “Of course, I’m very aware of the difficulties and the hardship. I’m also very much aware of the difficulty to explain how this is actually a global problem, and a problem that has come about by policy decisions that have been taken.”
But MP Darren Jones — whose Business, Industrial, Energy and Strategy select committee held an inquiry into the energy market — insisted: “They haven’t made this money because they are brilliant.
“They have made this money because Russia invaded Ukraine.”
He added: “The main driver of inflation has been high energy bills.
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