Shell to improve profits

Shell will be under the spotlight when it reports its results on Thursday, with motorists looking as keenly as investors to see if it has profited from high petrol prices.

Earlier this month the company came under attack when it put up the price of petrol by a penny a litre.

This was just weeks after it was strongly criticised after nearly doubling its pre-tax profits for the year to a record £9bn.

The figures for its first quarter are expected to show strong year-on-year growth not necessarily at the expense of the UK motorist.

Analysts point out that much of its profit will come from the US, refining margins have been high for the past 10 months, while they have been weak in Asia and stable in Europe.

Daniel Krimholtz, the oil analyst at Williams de Broe, said although oil price has fallen slightly it is still high and is backed up by high gas prices.

But this can backfire and is, he says, one of the reasons that the chemical division has performed weakly.

A slowdown in US demand, coupled with high gas prices, has led to high feedstock prices that are not being borne by the consumer.

Mr Krimholtz is pencilling in pre-tax profits of $3.4bn (£2.36bn), up from $3.1bn last year.