Oil majors BP and Royal Dutch Shell will be back in the spotlight next week with first-quarter profits from the pair likely to be severely dented by sharply falling oil prices.

A year ago, the pair reported Q1 results on the same day and fuelled motorist anger over rising petrol prices by reporting a combined surplus of more than £7 billion.

In 2009 the climate however is far different, with crude prices below 50 US dollars a barrel and set to stay at these levels for much of the year amid a global slowdown.

This compares with last year, when crude prices were well above 100 dollars a barrel and heading towards a July peak of 147 dollars.

According to a consensus of broker forecasts, BP is expected to post "clean" underlying profits of 2.23 billion US dollars (£1.53 billion) on Tuesday - around two-thirds lower than last year's 6.23 billion US dollars (£4.29 billion).

Alongside surging crude prices, the group also began to turn the corner with operational improvements in refining and cutting the flab from the firm as whole after a disastrous 2007, but analysts fear the upswing has come at the wrong time.

Anglo-Dutch rival Shell, which reports on Wednesday, is also likely to see underlying Q1 profits well below the 7.85 billion dollars (£5.39 billion) seen last year, at 2.6 billion dollars (£1.8 billion).

Shell reported record profits of 31.37 billion US dollars (£22 billion) for 2008, up 14% on the previous year despite the slumping oil prices at the end of last year.

The firm has also pledged to maintain net investment at near to last year's level of 32 billion US dollars (£22.5 billion) in order to safeguard future profitability.

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