Iran deal optimism lifts markets; anger as Shell’s profits more than double – business live

Elsewhere in the energy world, the owner of British Gas has agreed to buy the Severn gas power plant in South Wales for approximately £370m almost six years after its previous owner went bust.

Centrica described its new acquisition as one of the most efficient gas plants in the UK, and said that it would play “a critical role” in stabilising the UK’s electricity system.

It agreed to buy the plant from Calon Energy, which entered administration in 2020. The company’s directors were able to regain control of the Severn and Sutton Bridge gas plants in 2021 to allow the plants to continue to run while a sale was agreed.

Severn is one of few gas plants in the UK which can ramp up power output at short notice to fill the gap left by fluctuating renewable electricity or an unplanned outage.

Centrica boss Chris O’Shea said:

“The importance of reliable, flexible generation to balance the system continues to increase, keeping energy supplies secure and affordable as the energy transition progresses. Severn will play an important role in supporting that journey.

With the delivery of replacement capacity being impacted by grid access, rising costs and supply chain constraints, alongside the closure of aging gas assets towards the end of the decade, the need for assets like Severn will increase.”

Shell’s profits jumped despite the production shutdowns and export constraints caused by conflict in the Middle East and the closure of the strait of Hormuz.

In March, Production at Shell’s Pearl gas-to-liquids facility in Qatar was ​stopped after an attack on the Ras ‌Laffan Industrial City.

Today, Shell indicates it could take a year to repair the damage to the Pearl ‘train’ (a compressor used to convert natural gas into liquefied natural gas (LNG)).

The company says:

On March 18, 2026, an attack on Ras Laffan Industrial City (Qatar) damaged one of the two trains at the Pearl GTL facility, resulting in a limited write‑off recognised within depreciation in the first quarter 2026.

It is currently anticipated that the full repair of the damaged train will take around one year.

Danny Gross, climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth, says Shell’s profits are ‘indefensible’, after the company doubled its quarterly earnings to $6.9bn this morning.

Gross says:

“Once again, fossil fuel giants are pocketing monstrous profits while drivers are being squeezed at the petrol pump and households are set to pay higher energy bills.

“Our fossil fuel-reliant energy system siphons money away from ordinary people to the rich and powerful.

“The answer is clear: strengthen the windfall tax on these indefensible profits and break our dependence on fossil fuels by powering our economy with homegrown renewables. This would lower energy bills, strengthen the UK’s energy security and protect us all from future energy price spikes.”

Maja Darlington, climate campaigner for Greenpeace UK, says the “fossil fuelled economy” is rigged in favour of oil giants like Shell.

“In the twenty-first century we have cheaper, cleaner alternatives that we can use to power Britain without anybody being bombed. We don’t need to let the fossil fuel industry hold us to ransom and pass on the costs of endless wars and limitless pollution.

The cost of living crisis, the climate crisis, the middle-east crisis, these are all oil industry operating costs. We need to stop subsidising them, introduce new taxes to make them pay and start taxing their obscene profits properly.”

Shell has become the latest energy giant to report soaring profits since the Iran war began.

Shell has beaten City forecasts by reporting profits of $6.9bn for the first quarter of 2026 – a period when oil and gas prices jumped and there was dramatic volatility in the energy markets.

That’s up from $3.256bn in the last three months of 2025 – when activity in the energy sector is typically lower (meaning lower profits).

That’s also a sharp jump compared with the first quarter of 2025, when the company made earnings of $5.577bn.

Shell attributes this jump in earnings to its trading division, higher prices and beefier profit margins at its refining business.

It told shareholders:

Adjusted Earnings, compared with the fourth quarter 2025, reflected higher contributions from trading and optimisation mainly impacting our Downstream, Renewables and Energy Solutions businesses, higher realised prices, higher refining margins, lower operating expenses and higher Lubricants margins, partly offset by lower volumes.

This surge in earnings will renew calls for a new windfall tax on the sector.

Anne Jellema, the executive director of climate campaign group 350.org, said:

“While people around the world struggle with soaring energy costs, Shell is raking in billions in added profit. The same crisis that is driving these windfalls is pushing millions closer to hunger and hardship.

“Governments must act now to tax these excess profits and use the money to protect vulnerable households and expand affordable, homegrown renewable energy.

Here’s the full story:

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.

Global stock markets are continuing to rally today as investors cling to hopes of a deal to end the Iran war.

Asia-Pacific markets have jumped, after strong gains in Europe and the US yesterday on signs of progress in US-Iran negotiations.

Shares pushed higher after US president Donald Trump said a deal with Iran to end the war was “very possible” after “very good talks” over the past 24 hours.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index has surged by 5.7% today, as trading resumed after the extended Golden Week holidays, while South Korea’s KOSPI index is up 1.4% and Australia’s S&P/ASX is 1% higher.

Iran is currently reviewing a US peace proposal, after Trump told Tehran to accept a deal to end the war or face a new wave of US bombing.

Yesterday, the FTSE 100 surged by almost 220 points, or 2.15%, to 10,438 points, while on Wall Street the S&P 500 hit a record high.

Oil plunged, ending yesterday almost 8% lower.

Markets are “aggressively pricing a peace dividend across oil, bonds, and currencies”, reports Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, even though major geopolitical fault lines remain unresolved.

Innes adds:

The market traded like a casino where the fire alarm suddenly stopped ringing just as the champagne carts rolled back onto the floor. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite surged to fresh all-time highs, but truth be told, this was not merely an American rally. It was a full-blown global melt-up as traders aggressively embraced the idea that the Iran war may finally be shifting from missile trajectories to negotiation tables.

The agenda

• 7am BST: German factory orders

• 8am BST: Riksbank interest rate decision

• 9am BST: Norges Bank interest rate decision

• 9.30am BST: UK construction PMI

• 12.30pm BST: US Challenger job cuts

• 1.30pm BST: US jobless claims