Taxes on operating firms in the oil and gas industry are "inevitable" to help the poorest people, according to the chief executive of Shell.

Ben van Beurden said that energy markets cannot behave in a way that "damage a significant part of society".

Households in the Britain have been under pressure from rising energy bills as gas and oil prices have soared.

This led to a windfall tax being introduced earlier this year on North Sea producers, but the UK Government under Liz Truss has pushed back against extending the levy.

Last week, the EU agreed emergency measures to charge its energy firms on record profits.

Energy prices jumped when Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this year, although prices had already been rising as economies began to recover after Covid lockdowns were lifted.

Speaking to the Energy Intelligence Forum in London yesterday, Mr van Beurden stated: "You cannot have a market that behaves in such a way - logically and effectively and everything else - that it's going to damage a significant part of society."

Government intervention

The BBC reports that he said that, "one way or another", there would be government intervention that "results in protecting the poorest".

"That probably means governments need to tax people in this room to pay for it - I think we just have to accept (that) as a societal reality," he said.

Mr van Beurden added that taxes can be brought in "smartly and not so smartly".

"There is a discussion to be had about it, but I think it's inevitable," he said.

However, governments should not intervene to cap gas prices, he added.

The UK brought in its windfall tax on bumper oil and gas profits for producers in May, but Prime Minister Ms Truss has ruled out extending it.

A UK Government spokesperson said: "The government has been clear that it wants to see the oil and gas sector reinvest its profits to support the economy, jobs, and the UK's energy security."

Energy profits levy

"We expect our energy profits levy, announced in May, to raise an extra £7billion in its first year which will help pay for the £400 energy bills discount for all households to help with energy bills from October.

"This is on top of our new energy price guarantee, announced last month which will save the average household around £1,000 a year based on current energy prices from October."

Susannah Streeter, senior investment and market analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown, said Mr van Beurden's comments had "flung open a door on a windfall tax which the UK Government had been trying to close".

"This will reignite the debate over how profits of energy giants should be taxed, just as a row rages about whether welfare spending will be hit to pay for the Truss administration's slash and spend policies," she said.

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