That is not a typo, the title of this article is correct.
Today, BP announced global profit levels of $3.2billion (roughly £2.4billion) for just the first three months of 2026. This is more than double the $1.4bn they achieved in the first quarter of 2025.
It’s a disgusting number, absolutely insane for a single company to be earning that much profit during the worst energy crisis the world has ever seen.
Alongside this impressive profit boost, BP announced increased revenue of $53.4bn for the first three months of this year… that’s roughly $6,870 of revenue every second, or in GBP: £5,080 every second of every day for three months!
This article will take you roughly 2 minutes to read… in that time BP will have made over £600,000! In the hour it took me to write this article, BP earned over £18million… get yourself 8 hours sleep tonight and wake up knowing that while you rested, BP earned almost £150million, and will continue to do that every night while you sleep. I genuinely struggle to comprehend these numbers.
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How are your finances affected?
There are two ways that oil prices impact you. The first is the cost of petrol skyrockets. This is obvious and felt immediately, we’ve all seen petrol rise by £0.20-£0.30 per litre over the last 2 months. Petrol at my local petrol station went from 128.9p per litre in February to 156.9p per litre today, a 28p increase. Considering I use about 40l of petrol a week, that’s costing me an extra £11.20 a week, or £582.40 a year out of my takehome salary – to cover JUST THE INCREASE, I’d need a £1,000 payrise, which I’m obviously not going to get just because oil prices are rising.
The second way oil prices impacts your personal finances is a little more subtle because you don’t feel it immediately. Oil drives up the cost of your energy bills, but it takes 3-6 months before it hits your bills. The energy we use at home is usually purchased months in advance by our supplier, they buy it from the generators. Therefore, our bills today reflect the prices of gas and electricity from months ago. By that same notion, we can predict the future of our energy bills based on oil prices today – and oil prices are HIGH!
Cornwall Insight is an independent energy research company, they always give predictions for the next price cap. They predicted the January price cap to the £, and I’ve never known their predictions to be more than £5 off. Cornwall Insight are currently predicting that the energy price cap will increase by around £202 in July, a 12.3% increase on today’s prices.
Most experts in the market are predicting a further increase in October. Our time of “low” energy bills is over again, be prepared for an expensive winter this year.
What can we do?
There are ways to mitigate your costs, reduce the amount you’re contributing to the profit margins of companies like BP. Here’s a few ideas:
- Firstly, and most importantly, make sure you’re on a FIXED RATE energy tariff. If you’re on a variable or tracker tariff then your prices will rise with the price cap and your energy supplier will be grateful for the huge profits you provide them. Right now, E.ON Next’s Next Fixed 12m v125 tariff is the cheapest FIXED tariff in the market.
- You can reduce your petrol expenses a number of ways:
- car pooling with colleagues (me and one of my mates do this already),
- try to work from home more often – You have a legal right to request more flexible working, and it could save you move
- improve fuel efficiency by keeping your tyres properly inflated, remove unnecessary weight from your car, drive at 55-65mph on long journeys and try to avoid using air conditioning as much as possible.
- You can reduce energy costs at home in a variety of ways too:
- My favourite tip is to socialise more in the evenings. Go to a friend’s or family member’s house, then you’re not using electricity in your home! Get a group together and take turns at each other’s home, you can all save some money!
- After cooking a meal, leave the oven open to increase the temperature in your home without putting the heating on.
- Stop using the tumble drier, a clothes horse is cheaper and the weather is getting warmer
- socialise within your own home, a family movie night means one TV on rather than 4 or 5 people in separate rooms with lights, computers and TVs on all over the house!
- If you’re able to, keep an eye out for the “plug-and-play” solar panels being released later this year! Read about this new initiative finally approved by the UK Government here.
Profits in the energy industry are growing insanely fast, but we can take some control over how much we each contribute to those profits.
Thanks all,
Richard Winstone
The Regulator Guy.
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