Oil giants see profits rocket to £260bn following price boom

Some of the West’s biggest oil and gas firms raked in over £260billion in profits last year amid a boom in prices sparked by the war in Ukraine.

European majors Total and Equinor became the latest to post record profits for 2022 following bumper performances from BP and Shell.

French giant TotalEnergies made a profit of £30billion for last year, doubling its £15billion in 2021. Norway’s Equinor posted a record £62billion profit, up from £28billion the previous year.

Equinor – 67 per cent-owned by the Norwegian government – played a key role during Europe’s energy crisis by pumping gas after Vladimir Putin decided to shut off Russian supplies in retaliation against Western sanctions.

Norway is the biggest supplier of gas to the UK and Germany, with the latter scrambling to wean itself off Russian energy. 

UK oil giant BP this week reported profits of £23billion for 2022, the highest in its 114-year history. Shell generated a record profit of £33billion during the year.

Both have rewarded investors with large share buybacks and dividend hikes. BP’s share price has risen nearly a third over the last 12 months while Shell has jumped 23 per cent.

In the US ExxonMobil and Chevron reported annual profits last month of £46billion and £29billion respectively.

US refining group Valero Energy, Texan oil and gas firm ConocoPhillips and Ohio-based Marathon Petroleum also saw large profit increases.

Together, the nine oil and gas majors delivered an annual profit for 2022 of around £260billion, which is higher than the annual GDP of Malaysia.

The industry has cashed in on the price of fossil fuels, with Brent crude, an international oil price benchmark, hitting a decade high of around $122 a barrel in June last year as supply shortages began to bite.