UPDATE: This piece has been updated to include comment from Exxon Mobil.
The three largest Western oil companies raked in a combined record-breaking $46 billion in profits in the second quarter of 2022, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
Exxon Mobil posted a profit of $17.9 billion, while Chevron posted profits of $11.6 billion, both were records for their companies and were nearly four times higher than profits made during the second quarter of 2021, according to the WSJ. Shell’s record profit of $11.5 was slightly more than double its earnings this time last year, according to quarterly press releases.
“[Exxon Mobil is] helping meet increased demand by expanding our refining capacity by about 250,000 barrels per day in the first quarter of 2023 – representing the industry’s largest single capacity addition in the U.S. since 2012,” Exxon Mobil Corporate Media Relations Manager Casey Norton told the Daily Caller News Foundation.”Our refineries in Beaumont, Baton Rouge, Joliet and Strathcona set records for their throughput.”
“We’re going to make sure everybody knows Exxon’s profits,” President Biden said, according to the WSJ. “Exxon made more money than God this year.”
President Joe Biden has been a frequent critic of the oil industry, calling on companies to increase production to lower prices. Biden plans to make oil industry profits an issue during the midterm elections, the WSJ reported.
My message to the companies running gas stations and setting prices at the pump is simple: this is a time of war and global peril.
Bring down the price you are charging at the pump to reflect the cost you’re paying for the product. And do it now.
— President Biden (@POTUS) July 2, 2022
Exxon’s oil and gas production is up approximately 4% from this time last year, while Chevron’s production in the U.S. is up 3.2%, according to the WSJ. (RELATED: Big Oil Making Big Bucks As Pump Prices Stay High)
“Those investments are really helping to increase production at a time when the world needs it most,” Exxon Chief Financial Officer Kathryn Mikells told the WSJ, pointing out that Exxon was spending 40% more on searching for additional sources of oil.
The companies’ profits were boosted by the high price of crude oil, according to Reuters. However, as the Russian invasion of Ukraine and coronavirus pandemic led to a rash of refineries being shut down, profit margins on the remaining refineries skyrocketed, outweighing the increased crude oil costs, Reuters reports.
Meanwhile, gas prices have been steadily declining to an average of $4.27 per gallon from their June peak of $5.02, but could rebound as demand for gas is slowly increasing, according to a Friday report by the American Automobile Association (AAA).
Shell, Chevron and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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