Gas profit for the six months ending in June rose to £1.34bn from £262m a year earlier.

[FirstCoffeeOfTheDay]

I don't get it can someone explain in really simple terms how gas profits are rising?

I thought the prices of gas was going up because the wholesale price is up, so therefore, the profits should stay broadly the same.

?

Because the powers that be are scumcunt fuckpigs.

That about sums it up. I say re-nationalise utilities. Keep costs down and put any profit back into the Treasury and infrastructure.

That's the gas producers, not the energy suppliers. There's a difference

I think there should be considerable thought given to nationalising energy in the current crisis. It is immoral that these companies are passing on huge price increases and while making these increases in profits.

This.

Its absolutely disgusting.

Disgusting but not that shocking

When people die this winter because they can’t afford heating, the blood will be on their hands and we shouldn’t let the forget it.

Let's remember that it was Thatcher who privatised all the utilities on the basis that market forces would control the market more effectively .
Liz Truss sees herself as another Thatcher. God help us.

Is that Centrica’s profits you’re quoting?

Centrica produces energy as well as sells it.

Basically you have energy producers, who sell energy on the wholesale market. Energy is sold to retail suppliers who then in turn sell to customers (us).

The retail suppliers buying on the wholesale market are struggling with rising wholesale prices - the price cap sets how much they can charge domestic customers for energy. So if the price they’re paying at the wholesale market is very high, they won’t recover the full cost from selling it on to their customers. Most retail suppliers are struggling and not making profit - more will probably fold this year. (Look at what’s happened with Bulb too).

IMO we should be putting an emergency tax on producers and using this to help consumers.

Is that the gas producers or the energy suppliers?

Which company / companies is that?

Is that global or UK profits?

What's the profit to volume sold ratio?

Those in the energy industry do make a huge amount of money. Not because they charge an excessive markup, but because they sell a massive amount of their product. If you're only making 0.1p profit on each unit of gas sold, for example, it doesn't matter as long as you're selling billions of those units.

This. And that is not something I would usually say!

What I have found shocking is how little these profits have been spoken about in the context of the cost of living crisis. Its very man behind the curtain!

The headline figures are for Centrica - the whole group.

British Gas Energy (the company that supplies gas and electricity to homes and is equivalent to companies like Octopus and OVO) profits were £98m - down from £172m. This equates to £12 profit per customer over 6 months - £2 per customer per month.

Gas Services (who provide household maintenance & installations) profits were £7m - down from £60m.

The bulk of the profits came from Exploration & Production who extract the gas for sale to energy suppliers (including our European neighbours), and generate electricity at gas, renewable and nuclear power stations for sale to energy suppliers.

They also made a good profit from bulk Energy Trading, and small profits from Business Services and the Irish equivalent of British Gas - Bord Gáis.

One important figure that nobody seems to be talking about is that tax paid by Centrica for the 6 months was £581m - up from £59m last year.

Centrica owns British Gas and they have announced £1.34 BILLION profit for the first HALF of 2022!
news.sky.com/story/amp/energy-giants-shell-and-centrica-enjoy-soaring-profits-as-prices-rise-12660367

That is an eye watering amount of shameless profiteering from normal folk in 6 months and it’s likely to rise!
The “cost of living” crisis is manufactured to support greedflation of the global elite.
I hope the government can step in to cap profits or introduce higher taxes that go back to the people as rebates. Ideally all essential services should be state owned.
All in all a sorry state of affairs when we’re all just trying to get by and the extremely rich just get richer without any accountability or conscience.

The bulk of the profits came from Exploration & Production who extract the gas for sale to energy suppliers (including our European neighbours), and generate electricity at gas, renewable and nuclear power stations for sale to energy suppliers.

This should be subject to a substantial windfall tax with the proceeds diverted to help people with the cost of living crisis. Also, why is so much investment going into exploration when climate action is so vital.

Re the difference between wholesaler and supplier, this would be almost a credible explanation except that suppliers are also wholesalers. Eg British Gas is a supplier, but the parent company also own centrica, which is a wholesaler.

They sell to themselves.

So when British Gas (or any other supplier) says "oh, we have to put prices up because our wholesaler is charging us loads of money" what they are saying is "another company owned by the same parent company as us is making loads of money by charging us loads of money, it's all really transparent and there's nothing we can do about it, honest, it's just The Market. Now pony up, suckers."

Basically that's true, but gas is an international commodity. If the French, Belgians, Dutch and Germans are willing to pay 240p/therm (the current price) but in the UK the energy suppliers will only pay 110p/therm (last October's price), if you were a North Sea gas extractor, who would you sell your product to?

At first glance this sums it up for me. Might be more complicated than this, but this is the first thing that springs to mind.

Yep this 👆
And believe me I’m terrified- I remember the Thatcher years very well.

Pithy and accurate, imo.

Threads like this are depressing; people who can’t be bothered to do even the most basic research getting annoyed by something that they don’t understand and have got wrong.

Question of scale. When this kind of numbers start being bandied around, they are difficult to compare / make sense of.
Divided by the number of households in the UK (about 28 millions) £1.34bn represents around £48 per household in average, over a one year period. Compare that to the average annual energy bill.

Also, what is more relevant is how much of that was distributed as dividends - all of it or only a part of it?

On the other hand, all these energy companies are very quick to use any excuse to raise prices, but have difficulties ever seeing any reason to reduce their prices.

Me too

It's a question of having the time to do so. I don't have the time to learn the intricacies of the energy market as a busy parent, especially since most places where you would look to find this out have their own differing agendas. Very hard to find the truth in anything today sadly. Some people on here are very helpful and share their expertise, but then a lot of it could be opinion too.

Where do you think people are getting it all wrong?

Confusing the producers with the suppliers in this thread is the main problem, and then assuming that the suppliers are making large profits.

British Gas last year made £10 profit per domestic customer. This is a tiny fraction of the bill.

Confusing the producers with the suppliers in this thread is the main problem

They're owned and run by the same people.

If you think they are separate independent business entities then it's you who has the problem.