Royal Dutch Shell has outshone its troubled rival BP, after revealing a near-doubling in annual profits to £11.5 billion.

Higher oil prices and a boost to production levels meant the Anglo-Dutch firm increased earnings in the final three months of the year by almost 400 per cent to £3.5 billion.

The figures come two days after BP revealed its first annual loss in nearly two decades of £3 billion, after counting the cost of the Deepwater Horizon explosion.