Big oil earnings: World's five largest fuel retailers' profits double in 2022

Refinitiv data suggests West’s largest oil and gas companies have reported profits of $200 billion making US president Joe Biden call it outrageous. This has also led to more conversations on increasing windfall taxes further on oil production.

ExxonMobil reported historically high earnings within oil producers at $56 billion which compares with the previous record of $45.2 billion which the company reported in 2008.

In the last quarter of 2022, the company took a hit of $1.3 billion in Q4 earnings on account of windfall taxes.

Shell, reported adjusted earnings of $40 billion in 2022 which has doubled versus 2021 levels of $19.3 billion. For Shell, the last known record profit was in 2008 at $28.4 billion.

Chevron also reported a big jump in profits, more than doubled on a year-on-year basis at $35.5 billion, this compares with $15.6 billion reported in the last year.

British Petroleum, the British giant, reported profits at $27.7 billion in CY2022, against more than doubled profits of $12.8 billion in CY2021.

French energy major Total Energies reported profits of $36.2 billion in CY2022 which basically means an increase of 100 percent year-on-year.

The company booked a provision of $1.7 billion for extraordinary windfall taxes.

Refinitiv believes in 2023 these profits are expected to decline to $158 billion.