Gone With the Windfall?

The Ukraine war/return to pre-Covid levels of industrial activity have resulted in UK and US petrochemical companies making 'eye-watering' profits. Given the impacts of the energy and cost of living crises, talk has naturally turned to appropriate levels of government 'windfall tax' on these 'unearned' profits (https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/nov/01/bp-pay-windfall-tax-profits-oil). The most recent example is British Petroleum (BP) that has announced a record $8.2bn in profits for its third quarter. BP expect to pay $800m in windfall taxes. Some people think this figure is much too low and should rise. More worrying' is the case of Shell, who have made extraordinary profits of $30bn, thus far, this year. Shell don't expect to pay any windfall taxes. They claim to have 'off-set' the tax, against their costs of exploration, to find further reserves of oil and gas (under legislation brought in by the current UK PM, when he was Chancellor). Well into the future (it takes time to bring new sites online), these additional reserves might well further boost Shell's already considerable profits. Such exploration will do nothing, however, to help folk with their energy supplies or the rampant cost of living, now. Climate change must mean strongly disincentivising the extraction of oil and gas from new sites. Perhaps the UK's PM needs to travel to Cop27 to be reminded of this fact?