Oil Companies Report Huge Profits Amid Sky-High Gas Prices

Everybody’s favourite mass polluters, and the 2 largest U.S. petroleum corporations, are having a banner yr thus far.

Today, ExxonMobil and Chevron launched their earnings summaries for the primary three months of 2022. And, shock, whereas individuals within the U.S. have been paying among the highest-ever common costs on the pump, the oil giants have been completely raking it in.

Exxon reported earnings of $5.48 billion between the beginning of January and finish of March, greater than double the $2.73 billion it earned in the identical interval final yr. And this was after the corporate incurred a $3.4 billion “after-tax charge” (i.e. loss) from discontinuing its operations in Russia.

Chevron did even higher, reporting total earnings of $6.26 billion within the first quarter of 2022, in contrast with $1.38 billion for 2021’s first quarter. That’s greater than a 4.5-times improve, and the corporate’s most worthwhile quarter in almost a decade, because it reported $7.2 billion in web earnings at the end of 2012. “Human energy” certainly.

Neither firm elevated its total manufacturing within the first a part of 2022. Exxon’s manufacturing was down 4% from final quarter, and Chevron produced 40,000 fewer barrels of oil per day between this quarter and last. Instead, the petroleum companies appear to be merely reaping the advantages of high barrel costs. (Note: Although Chevron produced much less total, the corporate’s home oil manufacturing did go up by 10%, and it’s trying to additional improve the quantity of oil it pumps from the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico to 1 million barrels per day.)

As a reminder, the presently excessive fuel costs are not as a consequence of any manufacturing points. Oil corporations spent the 2010s really overproducing, they usually suffered financially for it. Fossil fuels stayed low cost, and we stayed reliant on them. Exxon and Chevron would possibly attempt to argue they’re incomes these new income as a result of they’ve swooped into save the day amid world battle or that the Biden Administration is guilty for prime fuel costs as a result of they’ve restricted the trade. Yet, neither is true.

Now, fuel in all probability needs to be costly, contemplating the true value of burning it in our engines is environmental collapse. But till the U.S. makes good on its promises to meaningfully enhance and broaden public transit, most Americans depend on vehicles to get round, and excessive fuel costs damage the already financially vulnerable the most. So, the query turns into: Should the businesses most chargeable for the “atlas of human suffering,” as UN secretary basic António Guterres known as a current IPCC report, be those profiting?

Chevron, in fact, helped put an environmental lawyer in jail and final yr spilled 600 gallons of oil from a refinery in Richmond, California that was already one of many state’s biggest polluters. Which is nothing in comparison with the large Exxon Valdez spill that’s nonetheless inflicting reverberations of harm for each individuals and the surroundings greater than 30 years later. Exxon helped pay for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and, as a substitute of investing its important 2022 income into its personal “low carbon” objectives, it is as a substitute opting to buy back inventory and reward its shareholders.

I might preserve itemizing issues to contemplate in context with these new earnings reviews, but when I listing too many, I would lose my shot to ultimately work within the Chevron newsroom.