Oil companies report sky-high profits thanks to wartime crude prices
Major oil companies like Chevron, Shell, and ExxonMobil are reporting record-breaking quarterly profits amid global supply chain disruptions. The conflict in the Middle East and attacks on Russian infrastructure have restricted fuel exports, leading to higher consumer prices and calls for windfall taxes.
Why it matters
The surge in energy profits during a period of global inflation has sparked a significant political debate regarding corporate taxation and the ethics of windfall gains during wartime.
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Chevron just announced its highest quarterly earnings ever. Shell clocked its second-highest quarterly profits. And while ExxonMobil's profits came in beneath what Wall Street analysts had expected, it still managed to double its earnings compared with this time last year.
Climate Oil companies are making billions. In the U.S., calls to tax their windfall are growing Combined, the three companies raked in, on average, some $404 million in profits every day for the last three months.
It's a bonanza for those companies (and for their executives ). And it's raising eyebrows and ire among some European lawmakers and Democrats in the U.S. Congress, who are calling for windfall taxes on those companies.
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