If there’s one thing that struck this week’s financial news, it’s the unimaginable growth. oil groups West, which more than doubled to $219 billion. And this, on the one hand, gives them the opportunity to reduce their debt, on the other hand, it reinforces angry calls for a one-time taxation of this income package, while households around the world Europe having a hard time dealing with high bills. In addition, companies are announcing cost increases, abandoning their ambitious environmental targets to reduce emissions and shifting dramatically to clean energy. In particular, according to Reuters, the oil giants, thanks to the high price of natural gas and “black gold”, more than doubled their profits and broke their previous records in the wake of Russian invasion of Ukraine. Moreover, this drastic factor has upset the balance sheets of the global energy market and, in some cases, the sector’s ambitions to combat the effects of climate change. Rising profits have given oil companies the opportunity to increase spending on fossil fuel projects, namely oil and natural gas, and the opportunity for some to rethink their rapid energy transition strategies to meet the new requirements for security of supply that arose after the war.

BP, Chevron, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Shell and TotalEnergies paid out a record $110 billion in dividends and share buybacks.

The combined profit of $219 billion allowed BP, Chevron, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Shell and TotalEnergies to make cash available to shareholders, while in the case of BP in particular, dividends increased by 10%. Together, leading Western oil companies have paid out a record $110 billion in dividends and share buybacks to investors in 2022. We usually mention that Norway’s Equinor yesterday Wednesday announced that it doubled its 2022 adjusted operating profit to $74.9 billion on the back of rising prices for European natural gas as it became the largest supplier to the Old Continent after Russia’s Gazprom cut supplies. “.

Oil companies also pulled out of Russia, a major energy producer, last year, leading to massive write-downs, including a $24 billion exit from BP’s 19.75% stake in state-owned oil giant Rosneft. However, on Tuesday, BP posted a windfall of $27.6 billion, surpassing the previous record of $26 billion set in 2008. Soaring oil and gas prices, declining debt levels and a sharp decline in supplies from Russia to Europe have also prompted boards of directors to increase spending on fossil fuels as governments prioritize the security of supply. Finally, French TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Poigin, after the company reported a record $36.2 billion profit for 2022 yesterday, stressed that the global scenario remains very favorable for energy companies, and the easing of measures against coronavirus in China increases demand for 2023.