Shell profits soared to £32.2 billion in 2022 - the highest in its 115-year history - as thousands of Bath and North East Somerset residents struggle to pay their energy bills.

The latest figures from Shell far exceed its previous record profits of £25billion back in 2008 and comes off the back of soaring energy prices due to Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine a year ago.

It comes as energy bills look are set to rocket again in April, when the Energy Price Guarantee will rise from £2,500 a year for the typical household to £3,000.

Last month, it was reported that five of the world's biggest oil companies - including the UK’s Shell and BP - are expected to pocket a £160 billion profit bonanza when they all reveal their latest financial results. This equates to a shocking £5,000-plus a second.

55% of all South West, including the West of England, households are now in fuel poverty, according to Child Poverty Action Group.

Responding, Metro Mayor Dan Norris said he was investing in emergency support to keep vital energy advice services running this winter to support residents and has brought forward additional funding to get on with retrofitting homes across the West. But he warned the case for a “proper” windfall tax on energy giants was now unarguable.

He said: “Shell say these obscene profits demonstrate the strength of its ‘differentiated portfolio’. I say it demonstrates one thing and one thing only and that’s the fact that fossil fuel companies are still making billions off the back of an illegal war because of minsters’ blanket refusal to implement a proper windfall tax.

"As locals face an energy price hike of 40% in April, failing to ensure companies making unexpected super-profits from the proceeds of war pay their fair share becomes more and more difficult to justify. Labour would stop the energy price cap going up in April, using the proceeds from a windfall tax worthy of the name to support residents through the difficult months ahead”.