Why should oil companies invest in renewables? They are in the oil business. They have their hands full.

Megan, Phoenix, USA

Run on vegetable oil and forgot about all the profit and tax imposed on us aimed at sending us into poverty and submission.

It's greener, from recycled product, doesn't end-up in landfill, & will help stop all these wars based on profit from fossil fuel. You might even get a tax rebate as dualfuel

Lauren, London, UK

Oil companies make very little from petrol. Its hard to understand why people call for their blood when in their eyes they are making a product which is less that 30p a litre. The rest is made up of taxes, distribution costs and profits from the pumps.

Ross, Redditch, England

And you can bet your bottom petro-dollar they will still claim they don't make any profit at the pumps! I expect Shell will be next.

Ron, Milton Keynes, UK

This is how we should pay for extra government borrowing. Impose windfall taxes on all oil and energy companies, That would get my vote. The taxes would mean: hey presto! recession averted by creating jobs for victims of credit crunch and recent oil driven inflation.

mac, Manchester, UK

This iscrazy, BP shpuld do its best to keep oil down at 50/60$,
to help World recovery, shareholder greed should not take precident.

jim, donegal, Irl

Disgraceful, many have seen fuel bills just to go to work go up by 20-35% in the last 12 months and as a result are struggling.

Phil Burton, Walsall,

Hopefully some of the profits genrerated will be passed back the consumer. Shame that some of the BP executives didnt go into politics though...we might then have someone runing the country who knows how to run an organisation!

Mark, Framlingham, UK

Nothing else matters as long as the oil companies make a profit of $10 billion in 6 months. To hell the rest of us

Chris, Manchester , uk

Mr Hayward shouldn't be quite so ebullient - his chums in the Cabinet will have less reason to excuse windfall taxes soon and in their current nationalizational and anti-oligarchal fervour could end up "investing" in BP. Tomorrow Never Knows.

Mike L, Chippenham,

BP are ALWAYS more expensive than any other petrol station in my area. Its always busy though - people need to shop around!

Tom, Leics,

Exxon 1st qtr Revenue $ 116 B. Pre tax income $ 20 B. Tax paid $ 9.3 B = 46%. Sales taxes,excise taxes,severance taxes,property taxes paid = $ 20 B. Total taxes paid $ 29.3 B. Three times net profits to shareholders who ALSO pay taxes. Source taxfoundation.org. Any other questions ?

Desmond Taylor, Houston, USA Tx

A number of people seem to be forgetting

a) the major portion of the cost of petrol is down to TAX, not to BP

b) you probably pay a higher mark up on a cup of coffee than you do to BP for petrol (less the tax)

Try celebrating their success.

Clive, Surrey,

Reading some of the comments here is highly depressing. Britain appears to be turning into a socialist state. Windfall taxes are disastrous - they're the corporate equivalent of raiding the savings and pensions of people who work hard and save to give the money to those who don't.

Simon Carter, London,

But what was the exchange rate with the US dollar as that is what the product is costed at

Fred Wallis, Leeds,

Brown will have his sticky fingures in here. It is an opportunity he cannot miss as he will not get it next year. He will get two cheers from the ignorant who don't realise that 70% of the price of petrol is tax .
The fall in the price of oil will reduce his revenues so he will raise fuel tax also

Vernon Cooper, Somerset, UK

Sure seems like these companies raise prices on their products when the oil prices rise. Of course this oil won't be processed for at least 30 days but they are already reaping the benefits of the rise. But the oil industry hesitates to drop prices on their products as quickly as they raise them

J ay Brower, Colorado Springs, USA

This article doesn't seem to state their revenue. Surely this is necessary to judge their profit margin?

Tony, Islington, London, UK

Get a grip folks! Commodities trading determines the price of oil, BP's profits are up because of a price spike. If BP makes a loss, they don't get given taxpayers' money so they can break even, so what right have we to take more when they make a profit? If you want some of it, buy their shares

Rob, York, UK

For goodness sake - they make the money because of the price they can sell the oil for, which is a globally traded commodity. The mark up on petrol is very small. Do you really expect them to sell oil to themselves (to sell as petrol in UK) at less than they can sell it elsewhere for more?

Andrew, Cambridge,

One word: amoral.

But what do you expect from a society in which kids are raised to want want want?

Ross, lancaster, UK

Controversy.....I like the word. Here in France we are one up on BP. Our Petroleum giant is TOTAL and these guys were set up and established with taxpayer's money but promised to index petrol prices on the barel price...they did so when it went up but are finding it difficult to go the other way !

E.Bee, Toulouse, France

BP made this profit in the entire world, not just the UK. Retail fuel sales are under 10% of an oil companies' revenue/profit. Cane them too hard and they'll move their operations out of the UK. The villains are the government with their fuel duty & VAT - roughly 75 pence of a £1 litre of petrol.

Howard, Nottingham,

Disgraceful, they should be ashamed.
Where is the regulation for these companies?

Bill, Knaresborough,

First the banks and the energy companies. Now BP! In a RESCESSION! Is there anyone out there NOT milking us? I'm no socialist but capitalism isnt really serving the people right now, is it? Its the otherway around.

Lucas Tatek, Herts., uk

Can we have a statement of how much the government has taken in fuel duty and taxes in the same period. Oh, and if possible, how that compared with the budget forecast

Ken Sutton, Bath, UK

the solution to greed is capping of petrol prices based on the price of oil. Also how about a tax on these profits to fund winter fuel costs?

Avi, Manchester,

Why are they not investing in electric cars and renewable energy? Greed, I suspect, as much by the investors as the company.

Charles Bockett-Pugh, Sandhurst, UK

148% up, $10 billion profits . what your really saying is the UK citizens have been robbed of $8 billion. this is theft sanctioned by our own government. Money that could have been better spent installing CCTV cameras to watch us all walking to the Unemployment office.

Allen , London, UK

Oil at $50 a barrel and petrol in the UK at £1 a litre ( was 70p a litre last time Oil was $50 a barrel ) what do you expect? its called greed .

Maybe theres a case for extra taxes on BP Profits, a greed tax

peter, Aldershot, UK