Press Releases
Big Oil Racks in a Record-Breaking $451 Billion in Profits Out of American Consumers; Executives Gifted $163 Billion to their Wealthy Shareholders
WASHINGTON, DC – Twenty-six of the nation’s largest oil companies made a record-breaking $451 billion last year, according to a new comprehensive analysis released by Accountable.US today.
Big Oil giants like BP, Shell, and Chevron more than doubled their net income from the previous year, and smaller companies like Murphy Oil And Southwestern Energy saw increases of 1,410% and 7,496%, respectively.
The industry’s historic margins were largely achieved through unabated price-gouging of American consumers. As families across the country experienced financial strain due to the artificially high prices at the pump, the industry spent over $163 billion on stock buybacks and dividends, further enriching their wealthy shareholders. Even as Big Oil executives complain about supposedly lower-than-desired margins in 2023, oil and gas companies have already publicly announced plans to buy at least $160 billion in stock backs starting this year.
Modern-day oil barons like Shell, BP and Chevron forced American consumers into financial strain and ruthlessly extracted every last dime out of working and middle-class people.
Despite the industry's bald-faced lies, Big Oil’s never-ending greed was the central force driving the industry's obscene price gouging. Now, executives have already announced plans to spend $160 billion on stock buybacks to enrich their wealthy shareholders further. Meanwhile, the MAGA majority in the House continues to shield Big Oil from accountability as their constituents pay the price.”
Jordan Schreiber, Director of Energy and Environment at Accountable.US.
Putting Big Oil’s Profits into Perspective:
Big Oil’s profits exceed the tax revenue of every US state; with the profits from the top oil companies in 2022, one could:
- Pay off US medical debt five times over;
- Keep the Amazon Rainforest thriving for over a century;
- Stop rising greenhouse gasses and combat global warming and have “150 billion left over”;
- End world hunger until 2035;
- ExxonMobil alone made $56 billion in 2022, enough to end chronic hunger for a year with $19 billion to spare.
- Buy every NFL team – thrice;
- Build fifteen Disney Worlds;
- Chevron, BP, and Shell could each build their own Disney World and have billions left over.
