Fossil Free London confront perennial tax dodgers Shell and BP in the space of two days

Fossil Free London is calling for perennial tax dodger Shell to cough up the £1.3bn they owe.

Shell: under pressure

On Thursday 6 November they protested outside the Treasury. The campaign group say Shell’s merger with Norwegian firm Equinor has allowed it to dodge a massive tax bill. In fact, they even claim the move got Shell a £12mn rebate! The companies want to exploit Rosebank, the biggest unexplored oil field in UK waters.

BREAKING 🚨: Activists are outside the Treasury calling out Shell’s £1.3BN tax dodge through its new Adura merger with Equinor.

Shell paid ZERO tax last year – and even got £12.4M back and now they're at it again. #StopAdura pic.twitter.com/yp8tLXZaoA

— Fossil Free London (@fossilfreeLDN) November 6, 2025

Fossil Fuel London has a specific campaign against the oil giant. It says:

Despite extreme weather ruining lives across the world, Shell remains committed to extracting more climate-wrecking oil and gas.

Shell’s own research shows that new oil and gas are incompatible with keeping global heating below the crucial 1.5C limit. Yet the company is investing billions in fossil fuel expansion – with as little as 1.5% of its spending going to solar & wind.

BP: chewing down billions in profit

Meanwhile, on Tuesday 4 November Fossil Free London also targeted BP. The group disrupted a panel event featuring senior BP staff member Stewart Macfarlane. BP’s quarterly profits were also announced:

Campaigners chanted ‘as hurricane Melissa tears down lives, do your profits help you sleep at night?’ as they were removed from the panel, hosted by the Association of International Energy Negotiators (AIEN) at Simmons & Simmons LLP’s office.

BP reported an underlying profit of $2.2bn (£1.7bn) this quarter, beating analyst expectations of $1.98bb.

These profit figures come as just last week Jamaica suffered the ‘storm of the century’ in Hurricane Melissa, super charged by the climate crisis BP’s fossil fuels have driven.

This February, BP announced they were slashing their targets, increasing its investment in oil and gas to $10bn a year while cutting more than $5bn from its low-carbon investment plans.

Robin Wells, director of Fossil Free London, said:

For a brief moment, BP pretended to push cleaner energy, but their green mask has slipped, to reveal the oily mouth behind. They’re chewing down on billions in profit while Jamaica lies in tatters and Haitian villages mourn 25 people swept away in floods.

Oil and gas companies are conspiring to burn down the house so a small number of rich men experience ever increasing oil wealth and raise the value of their shares. CEOs and shareholders wine and dine in luxury, we count the seconds until midnight as tipping points begin to cascade into action around us, soon impossible to stop. BP profits, we drown.

Featured image via screengrab