There were strong results this morning from two big British energy companies.
Centrica and Shell are among oil and gas producers around the globe who have benefited from soaring prices in recent months, partly fuelled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Centrica said profits for the first half of this year had gone through the £1billion mark.
Meanwhile, Shell announced that income in the second quarter of this year had soared to £14.8billion.
Centrica reported adjusted first-half earnings of £1.17billion before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation.
This figure, which excludes disposed assets of Spirit Energy, compares to £427million in the first half of 2021.
Centrica interests include British Gas, as well as oil & gas exploration and production assets.
Chief executive Chris O'Shea said: "The past year has demonstrated the importance of well-funded, well-run energy companies.
Significant progress
"We've made significant progress de-risking the group and building a stronger business for the benefit of all stakeholders.
"This strength has allowed us to lead the industry in measures to protect and support customers through the most challenging energy crisis in living memory and the benefit of our balanced portfolio can be seen in our first-half performance.
"We expect this to continue into the second half, underpinning continued investment in customer service and elsewhere in our portfolio.
"We are very aware of the difficult environment many customers are facing and we will continue supporting them.
"We are investing in our customers and colleagues - creating at least 500 additional UK-based customer service roles in British Gas Energy and 1,000 new UK engineering apprenticeships, while through the British Gas Energy Support Fund we are providing grants to help customers pay their energy bills.
"We have a clear strategy to continue improving operational performance, to grow our business and to position ourselves to deliver net zero at a cost which helps the many -not the few.
"We are committed to investing in the energy transition which will improve the security of energy supply in our core markets."
In its Q2 results today, Shell said income attributable to its shareholders was £14.8billion, compared to £5.8billion in Q1 and £2.8billion in the second quarter of 2021.
The company said the jump mainly reflected higher realised prices, higher refining margins and higher gas and power trading and optimisation results, partly offset by lower LNG trading and optimisation results.
Shell also announced today the commencement of a near-£5illion share buyback programme.