BP expected to post mammoth profits

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The profits - 38% ahead of the same period last year and equivalent to more than £1.7 million an hour - follow recent protests from hauliers over soaring costs as millions of motorists feel the forecourt pain.

The results are driven by the rocketing cost of crude oil over the period - finishing June at nearly 144 US dollars a barrel - but the bumper profits are unlikely to go down well.

Union leaders have called for a windfall tax on the profits of both BP and fellow major Royal Dutch Shell.

"Many will find it hard to accept the continued huge profits being made," said Neil Greig, director of the Institute of Advanced Motorists Motoring Trust.

BP however says that it makes less than 1p in profit on every litre of petrol it sells at its 1,300 filling stations across the UK.

In response to calls for a windfall tax, the company adds that it paid 14.5 billion US dollars (£7.8 billion) in taxes worldwide last year - of which 2.33 billion US dollars (£1.17 billion) was in the UK.

The 7.6 billion US dollar (£3.8bn) prediction for BP's underlying profits - stripping out exceptional gains and losses - is a consensus of City forecasts which range as high as 8.2 billion US dollars (£4.1 billion).

Under chief executive Tony Hayward - who took over from "Sun King" Lord Browne last year - the group is also benefiting from the increasing efficiency of its refineries, as well as the higher prices, although the current row over its Russian joint venture TNK-BP is overshadowing the group.

Tony Woodley, joint leader of the union Unite, said: "While ordinary people struggle to make ends meet, BP's boardroom is wading through knee deep profits. It is high time our government moved to stop the fuel corporates picking the pockets of the poor and needy."