Oil giants see profits rocket to £260bn following price boom
>
Oil giants are seeing profits soar to £260bn after the price hike caused by the war in Ukraine
Some of the West’s largest oil and gas companies reaped more than £260 billion in profits last year amid an explosion in prices triggered by the war in Ukraine.
European majors Total and Equinor were the latest to post record profits for 2022 following stellar performances from BP and Shell.
French giant TotalEnergies made a profit of £30bn last year, doubling its £15bn in 2021. Norway’s Equinor posted a record £62bn profit, up from £28bn last year.
Black gold: European oil companies Total and Equinor are the latest to post record profits for 2022 after great performances by BP and Shell
Equinor – 67 percent owned by the Norwegian government – played a key role in Europe’s energy crisis by pumping gas after Vladimir Putin decided to cut off Russian supplies in retaliation for Western sanctions.
Norway is the largest supplier of gas to the UK and Germany, with the latter scrambling to get rid of Russian energy.
British oil giant BP this week reported earnings of £23bn for 2022, the highest in its 114-year history. Shell made a record profit of £33 billion last year.
Both have rewarded investors with large share buybacks and dividend increases. BP’s share price is up nearly a third over the past 12 months, while Shell is up 23 percent.
In the US, ExxonMobil and Chevron reported annual profits of £46bn and £29bn respectively last month.
US refining group Valero Energy, Texan oil and gas company ConocoPhillips and Ohio-based Marathon Petroleum also saw major profit increases.
Together, the nine oil and gas companies posted annual profits for 2022 of around £260 billion, which is higher than Malaysia’s annual GDP.
The industry has been cashing in on the price of fossil fuels, with Brent crude, an international oil price benchmark, hitting an all-time high of about $122 a barrel in June last year as supply shortfalls began to itch.
