"It is unacceptable": Biden criticizes oil companies for record profits amid high inflation

First modification: 10/31/2022 – 17:14

In a new quarterly report, the boost that the war in Ukraine has given to the oil industry was evidenced: four of the five largest companies in the sector in the world have had net profits of almost 50 billion dollars.

Only ExxonMobil and Chevron, the largest in the United States, exceeded 30,000 million in net profits in the third quarter, tripling and doubling compared to the same period last year, respectively, according to the reports presented to their shareholders.

The size of the profits has reignited criticism from those who accuse the multinationals of not doing enough to increase production to offset rising fuel costs.

Joe Biden is one of them. Over the past few months, since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine began, the US president has repeatedly questioned the role of oil companies in the economy, hit by runaway inflation. At the time, he went so far as to say that Exxon Mobil “is making more money than God.”

“The oil companies (…) are using these record profits to pay their wealthy shareholders instead of investing in production and reducing costs for Americans. It is unacceptable. It is time for these companies to lower prices at the gas stations” , tweeted the head of the White House over the weekend.

Increasing taxes on the sector has been one of the calls from politicians and consumer groups, in order to raise funds to offset the impact on households of rising prices.

Shell CEO Ben Van Beurden has said the energy industry “must be prepared and accept” that it will face higher taxes to help struggling parts of society.

Shell earned more than $9 billion in the third quarter, putting it on track to surpass its record annual profit of $31 billion from 2008, when the price of oil jumped to $140 a barrel.

Hours after the British company reported its results and announced that it would increase its dividend by 15%, Joe Biden claimed that the company was misusing its profits.

Meanwhile, Chevron’s chief financial officer, Pierre Breber, warned in an interview with Reuters that “raising taxes on production will simply reduce it.”

The White House announced that President Joe Biden will make an announcement later Monday afternoon regarding “reports in recent days about major oil companies making record profits, even as they refuse to help lower prices in gas stations for the American people.

With Reuters and AP