BP Plc has paid about $1 billion in UK windfall taxes on profits from its North Sea operations since the levy was introduced less than a year ago.
(Bloomberg) — BP Plc has paid about $1 billion in UK windfall taxes on profits from its North Sea operations since the levy was introduced less than a year ago.
Disclosure of the payout, which is used to help British consumers cope with high energy prices, did little to deflect the ire of politicians who once again criticized the extraordinary profits as households suffer a cost-of-living crisis. Ed Miliband, who oversees climate policy for the opposition Labour Party, decried the earnings as “windfalls of war.”
The party, which is polling ahead of the ruling Conservatives, has vowed to expand the tax if it comes into power in the next election.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak introduced temporary higher taxes on North Sea oil and gas producers under the Energy Profits Levy in May last year, when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, to counteract soaring prices. He has since extended the measure.
BP paid about $300 million for the UK’s Energy Profits Levy in the first quarter of 2023, the company’s Chief Financial Officer Murray Auchincloss said in an interview on Tuesday. That was a bit less than half of its $650 million North Sea tax bill for the period and brought the total BP has paid for the windfall measure to about $1 billion.
Details of the company’s tax burden came along with another quarter of bumper profits as BP recorded nearly $5 billion of net income and announced another $1.75 billion of share buybacks.
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