Oil giant Exxon Mobil posted a record $55.7 billion (£45.2 billion) profit last year as oil prices soared following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The total is more than double what he was in 2021 and could put new pressure on the industry after some countries, including the UK, imposed special taxes on profits last year.
Exxon has criticized such measures as counterproductive. Last month it sued the European Union over a new windfall tax.
Exxon has opposed similar proposals in the United States, and President Joe Biden is trying to shift the blame for last year’s fuel price hikes onto companies that failed to use their profits to increase supply. A White House statement on Tuesday said, “[Russia’s Vladimir] Exxon has been forced to sell new profits to Western oil companies after Americans were forced to pay such high prices for their pumps amid Putin’s aggression.” It is outrageous that he has set a record,” he said.
“The present-day profits reviews make clear that oil agencies have the entirety they need, inclusive of document income and heaps of unused however authorized permits, to growth production, however, they are rather selecting to plough the one’s income into padding the wallet of executives and shareholders,” stated White House spokesman Abdullah Hasan.
In an interview with broadcaster CNBC, Exxon boss Darren Woods stated the White House wanted to “get its statistics straight”, noting that the corporation had endured putting money into oil and fueloline initiatives regardless of stress from traders and others to shift investments to renewable energy.
He advised traders on Tuesday that the income has been a vindication of the corporation’s strategy.
“Of course, our effects surely benefited from a beneficial marketplace however, to take complete gain of the undersupplied marketplace, our paintings started years ago,” Mr. Woods stated in a convention name with traders. “We leaned in while others leaned out, bucking traditional wisdom.”
Exxon’s stock price plunged in 2020 as oil demand plummeted, with the company reporting its first loss in decades. But stocks have skyrocketed, especially since 2021, as oil prices soared last year when the war in Ukraine disrupted energy supplies.
The company is working hard to cut costs and said profits would have been higher without the windfall tax in Europe. The company said it suffered $1.3 billion in losses in the final months of 2022, mostly from non-European taxes.
It also reported $3.4 billion in annual costs attributable to the expropriation of investments in Russia. Exxon says it has increased its capital spending by about 38% over the past year. In some key regions, such as Guyana and the Permian Basin, production increased by more than 30%, offsetting production losses from divestitures and shifts in Russia, the company said.
Total oil production in 2022 increased by about 3% from 2,289,000 barrels in 2021 to 2,354,000 barrels in 2021.
