LONDON, April 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Shell and BP have posted a combined profit of $7.2 billion. Shell (US$3.9 billion) and BP (US$3.3 billion) for the first quarter of 2008.

Graham Tran, Unite Regional Officer, said "These profits are a slap in the face for 180 staff at Shell who were told less than seven days ago that they face redundancy.

Furthermore, both Shell and BP have announced pension holidays for 2008 at a time when our members in Grangemouth are fighting to protect their pension fund.

Despite these huge profits there is still an unacceptable backlog of maintenance work on Shell installations in the North Sea. The continued failure to address this issue shows that Shell are not making the necessary investments in safety."

For further information contact: Graham Tran on +44-(0)7958-511569 or Ciaran Naidoo +44-(0)7768 931-315