Labour, the Greens and the Lib Dems have slammed the UK Government after oil giant Shell made nearly £1.4 billion more in profit than expected in the first three months of the year.
Labour Shadow Scotland Secretary Ian Murray said the profits were "unearned" and called for a "proper windfall tax" on large oil and gas companies.
Shell said its adjusted earnings had risen by 5.7 per cent compared with the first quarter of last year, reaching £7.6 billion.
The company will have distributed around £9.6 billion to its shareholders in the first six months of 2023.
This comes just days after BP announced that it made £500 million more than expected in the first quarter of the year.
Labour, the Scottish Greens and the Lib Dems called for the UK Government to take a tougher stance against the oil majors.
Labour Shadow Scotland Secretary Ian Murray said: "These enormous profits are unearned, unexpected windfalls. And every excess pound that the energy giants rake in is at the expense of families unable to pay their bills.
“Yet after all this time, the Tory windfall tax is still full of get out clauses with billions being bunged at oil and gas companies in special subsidies not available in any other part of the energy sector.
“Unlike the SNP, Labour would be doing the fair and right thing and bring in a proper windfall tax on oil and gas giants to help freeze council tax this year.”
SNP energy spokesperson Alan Brown said:
“A wealthy nation like Scotland should not be made to watch as our money is squandered on projects we have no say in, our energy wealth should be properly reinvested here in our local communities.
“Billions of pounds of revenue could be fairly generated each year if Westminster placed a levy on the practice of share buybacks - which has seen firms funnel eye-watering profits back to the pockets of shareholders while Scottish families struggle to eat.
“That would allow us to reinvest cash to help fightback against the worst of Westminster policy in Scotland, and lift families out of the poverty they’ve been forced into under Tory austerity.
“Labour also wants to shortchange Scotland – using cash generated by the North Sea industry to bribe voters in England with frozen council tax bills.
“For as long as we remain attached to this broken Westminster system we’ll be at the mercy of parties who see Scotland as little more than a cash cow. We need independence now more than ever to create a fairer economy that works for the workers – not the other way around.”
The Scottish Greens energy and environment spokesperson Mark Ruskell said: “These are climate wrecking profits, with every pound taking us another step closer to environmental breakdown. The world is burning but the fossil fuel giants have never had it so good.
“We can’t go on like this. The problem isn’t just companies like Shell, it’s the governments and system that support them and allow them to do so much damage.
“The best time to have taken the radical climate action we need would have been decades ago, the next best time is right now. It has to be all hands on deck. What we need is a rapid and irreversible shift to renewable energy.
“The system is broken and the only ones benefiting are the multinational polluters. All over the country there are households and families who have been plunged into fuel poverty, they cannot afford business as usual.
“That means closing the loopholes in the so-called windfall tax and taxing these companies properly. But, more than that, it means working for the climate by decarbonising our economy and reducing our emissions."
Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey MP said energy giants "should not be able to rake in huge profits while families across the country are struggling to make ends meet.
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