Exxon hoarded $56 billion in income final yr, crushing the earlier file for income set by a western oil firm.
Using on the wave of sky-high fuel costs and industry-wide worth hikes, oil big Exxon was handed the very best income ever reported by a western oil firm in 2022, its newest monetary report reveals.
The corporate reported on Tuesday that it made a web revenue of $55.7 billion in 2022, roughly 2.5 times its 2021 income of $23.6 billion. This represents $6.3 million in income per hour on common final yr, Reuters identified.
This doesn’t simply break the file for yearly income for a western oil firm, it fully crushes the earlier file. Final yr’s income surpass the earlier excessive, set by Exxon in 2008, by over $10 billion.
Exxon’s income come on the expense of the general public not simply due to the literal bills on the fuel pump but in addition due to the corporate’s position in advancing and denying the existence of the local weather disaster with its fossil gasoline merchandise, that are steadily eroding the livability of the planet.
Fossil Free Media Director Jamie Henn mentioned that Exxon’s income are particularly egregious when put in context with their position in serving to Russia’s oil and fuel {industry} to be a big participant on the earth’s power market, which mixed with the nation’s invasion of Ukraine has also played a part in causing fuel costs to soar.
“This yr’s income are actually past the pale,” Henn instructed Truthout through e-mail. “Exxon’s income are significantly galling as a result of they’re profiting off a disaster they helped create. Exxon labored with [Vladimir] Putin for many years to develop Russian oil and fuel manufacturing, a lot in order that Putin awarded Exxon’s former CEO Rex Tillerson a ‘medal of friendship.’”
“Add to that the report that got here out this month about how again within the Nineteen Seventies Exxon predicted with pinpoint accuracy the local weather disaster we’re now experiencing, and also you begin to see precisely what a legal enterprise this firm is engaged in,” Henn continued. “It’s theft on a planetary scale.”
Different oil giants additionally posted excessive will increase of their income final yr, gathered largely as a result of hovering fuel costs that drained Individuals’ wallets as they had been additionally hit by inflation in practically each different sector. Marathon Petroleum and Phillips 66 posted profits totalling practically $25 billion, with Marathon having fun with a 46 p.c year-over-year improve whereas Phillips multiplied its 2021 income by 3.5 instances.
Altogether the three oil majors that posted income on Tuesday raked in over $82.5 billion in income in 2022, largely off of the backs of the general public. The businesses additionally revealed in earnings calls that that they had spent $46.6 billion on inventory buybacks and dividends in 2022, per Accountable.US, handing piles of money to their shareholders and executives because the working class suffered.
Chevron additionally reported file income in its quarterly report posted on Friday, which confirmed that the corporate doubled its income final yr, gathering $36.5 billion in income. The corporate additionally introduced final week that it’s tripling its inventory buyback program to an eye-popping $75 billion, one of many largest inventory buyback plans ever carried out.
These income come on account of oil and fuel firms’ decades-long methods to disclaim the existence of the local weather disaster and delay motion to attract down fossil fuels. Oil and fuel firms have recognized internally for many years that reliance on fossil fuels would trigger main local weather destruction, threatening tens of millions if not billions of human lives, however have spent many years overlaying it up and persuading politicians to allow them to proceed the {industry}’s grip on the worldwide power market.
Local weather advocates like Henn have known as for a windfall tax on Huge Oil in response to what they are saying is worth gouging. They are saying that such a tax would discourage oil firms from arbitrarily inflating costs whereas placing a reimbursement within the pockets of the general public.
“Huge Oil has imposed a non-public tax on the American folks — to the tune of greater than $90 billion from simply two firms alone,” mentioned Public Citizen President Robert Weissman in an announcement. “This {industry} is uncontrolled. Huge Oil is worth gouging us to file income whereas destroying the flexibility of future generations to stay on our planet. In the meantime, shoppers spent final yr paying excessive costs to place gasoline of their automobiles and are spending extra to warmth and energy their houses this winter.”
Final fall, President Joe Biden threatened oil firms with a windfall tax to seize their extra income if fuel costs continued to remain excessive, as that they had practically all yr. Gasoline costs did indeed lower barely then, however started rising again this month and could continue surging to over $4 a gallon by this spring, analysts say. These worth will increase are taking place alongside Republican moves to even additional restrict the federal government’s skill to ease fuel costs because the celebration has taken over management of the Home.
