Britain’s BP was accused of “unbridled speculation” after it said on Tuesday that underlying profits tripled to $8.5bn (£6.9bn) between April and June, thanks to high oil prices. It was its biggest quarterly profit in 14 years and BP said it would distribute almost £4bn to shareholders as a result. Prices have soared amid fears over energy supplies caused in part by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Oil earnings chart Oil companies in the UK and beyond have enjoyed increased profits in recent months due to rising energy prices as households around the world struggle with rising bills. Rachel Reeves, Labour’s shadow chancellor, said the “stunning profits” showed the government was “absolutely wrong” to give major tax breaks to oil companies. Scores of Labor, Lib Dem and Green Party MPs, as well as environmental campaigners, have called for a higher windfall tax on oil companies. Fuel price table Second-quarter earnings included a record $11.5bn profit for BP FTSE 100 rival Shell, record $17.6bn and $11.6bn respectively for US ExxonMobil and Chevron, plus 9, 8 billion dollars for the French Total. In the first six months of the year the companies made a combined adjusted profit of nearly $100 billion. As Russia’s incursion continues, research firm Cornwall Insight has predicted that the energy price cap on annual bills in Great Britain is set to rise to £3,615 a year from January. This was an increase on the previous estimate of £3,363 made last month. The cap, which is set quarterly by the energy industry regulator Ofgem, was at £1,400 a year as recently as last October. Cornwall predicts the cap will remain above £3,400 for the whole of 2023, piling further pressure on household finances. “People will be confused by the latest earnings announced by BP,” said Sharon Graham, the general secretary of the Unite union. “The British economy is not working for workers and their families. Britain’s real crisis is not price rises, it is an epidemic of unbridled speculation.’ peak fuel price chart Further energy price rises in the coming months will also put further pressure on the UK’s new prime minister once Conservative party members choose between Truss and former chancellor Rishi Sunak by September 5. BP chief executive Bernard Looney, whose total pay in 2021 is set to reach £4.5m, in February described BP as a “cash machine”, even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine pushed up prices further. The company’s profits between April and June were the second highest in BP’s history and rounded off a period that will go down in our memory as one of the most profitable quarters in the history of the oil industry. The UK government in May belatedly responded to political pressure amid soaring energy prices with a surprise £5 billion tax on the “extraordinary profits” of oil companies. Reeves criticized the government for simultaneously giving oil companies 80% tax breaks for new investment, allowing them to reduce their tax bills by extracting more oil. He said Labor would use extra cash from scrapping tax breaks for a “green energy sprint” instead, as well as more home insulation to reduce energy use. “People are worried sick about energy prices going up again in the fall, but we’re still seeing impressive gains for oil and gas producers,” he said Tuesday. “Labour argued for months for a windfall tax on these companies to help reduce the bills, but when the Tories finally came round, they decided to give billions of pounds back to producers in tax breaks. This is completely wrong.” Subscribe to the Business Today daily email or follow Guardian Business on Twitter @BusinessDesk Environmental campaign groups Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth have also called for a much stricter tax on energy profits. Doug Parr, Chief Scientist at Greenpeace UK, said: “While households are being plunged into poverty with knock-on effects for the entire economy, fossil fuel companies are laughing all the way to the bank. The government is failing the UK and the climate in its hour of need. “The government needs to impose a proper windfall tax on these huge profits and stop giving companies huge tax breaks on disastrous new fossil fuel investments.” Jacob Rees-Mogg, the government’s Brexit opportunities minister, told LBC radio: “I’m not in favor of windfall taxes. The energy industry is highly cyclical. You have to have a profitable oil sector so that it can invest in energy extraction.” Looney acknowledged the difficulties facing households on a call with analysts. Energy affordability is a “hot issue for many,” he said. “We all have to recognize that it’s a very, very difficult place for people, not just in the UK but around the world,” he said. “We understand that. We understand.” But he also said BP’s oil and gas business was “doing what it’s supposed to do: capture the upside from higher prices.” BP also said it had a huge increase in margins from its refineries, which make products such as petrol, diesel and jet fuel – all of which contributed to rapid inflation in major economies. Environmental groups have said the tax windfall should be invested in energy-saving measures such as home insulation, in a move to help tackle the climate crisis as well as reduce reliance on despotic oil and gas production regimes like Russia. A Treasury spokesman declined to comment on individual taxpayers, but said the £5bn levy on energy profits would “help pay for the £37bn support package, which includes direct payments of at least £1,200 each to £8m more vulnerable families, a cut in fuel tax, and a cut in national insurance worth up to £330 a year for the typical employee.”