Beating all the expectations of a sluggish growth, oil giants Royal Dutch Shell and BP garnered significant profits during the first quarter. Still rising prices are expected to further add to the oil shares.

London: 2nd May, 2008—Planet's second largest non-government controlled company Shell has actualized an increase of 12% to its net income (not counting the unrealized profits accruing due to changes in the inventory values). While the profits for the industry's third largest player BP reached up to $6.6 billion helped by a 48% growth rate.

"It's an eye opener for investors, showing what the high commodity price environment really, really means in terms of earnings for the oil sector," Fortis Bank's oil analyst Paul Andriessen told in Amsterdam. The DJ Stoxx European oil & gas index increased by 1.75 percent, in contrast to a 0.53 percent decrease in the FTSEurofirst 300 index of the top-notch European shares.

The oil market leader's core oil & gas production units were the main pushers of the huge profits. All this is in consequence of the high oil prices averaging about $100/barrel during the quarter, as well as strong gas prices in the U.S. and European markets.

Landing better profits than expected—even though in the face of high crude prices, which obviously narrows the margins--the retail earnings increased as the companies passed the price increase to the motorists. Further, playing better cards in the sensitive energy markets, BP and Shell garnered big profits from cargo trading and deratives.

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