BP posts double profits of $27.7bln in 2022

British energy company BP announced on Tuesday its annual net profits of $27.7 billion for 2022, more than doubling last year’s total of $12.8 billion, according to its report.

The increase came amid growing calls for the U.K. government to boost taxes on companies profiting from the high price of oil and natural gas after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

BP also increased its quarterly dividend by 10 percent and announced plans to buy back $2.75 billion of stock from shareholders, the statement mentioned.

“We had our highest operations reliability in our history, we had the lowest production cost in 16 years so the business itself is running very well,” Looney told CNBC on Tuesday.

The figures have sparked demands on BP that the fossil fuel industry do more to offset high energy bills even as they cut climate-damaging carbon emissions, according to the statement.