Q3 Oil And Gas Profits Explained

Oil and gas companies posted (more!) record high earnings this quarter. Total adjusted earnings of the 20 largest oil companies in the U.S. were $62.672 billion this quarter, bringing total year to date profits to a massive $261 billion. 

• Oil and gas companies pushed gas prices 44% higher, driving their profits 151.6% higher than third quarter earnings in 2021. 
• Big Oil’s price bonanza isn’t ending anytime soon, with winter heating prices expected to be 28% higher for American households than last year. 

And who benefits from this massive increase in prices and profits? Big oil companies, working to enrich their CEOs and stakeholders instead of lowering costs for Americans at the pump. 

• Oil companies spent over $43 billion on dividends and stock repurchases last quarter, representing 68% of profits. No matter how much Exxon’s CEO wants us to believe their dividend payments return “some of their profits directly to the American people,” buybacks and dividends fund their billionaire shareholders, not American families.

Excess profits aren’t being invested to increase production, a move which would eventually lower prices. The only priority for oil and gas CEOs is growing their dividends and expanding share buybacks; Exxon, ConocoPhillips, Chesapeake Energy, Marathon Petroleum, Marathon Oil Corp., Phillips 66, and APA Corp. all announced increased dividends or increased stock buybacks for the fourth quarter, clearly illustrating their commitment to shareholder value above all else. One thing oil and gas CEOs are investing in is greenwashing. 

• A study of five major international oil and gas companies – BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, and TotalEnergies – found they spent just 12% of their capital expenditure budgets on low-carbon or renewable investments last year, despite 60% of their messaging containing claims the company was going green. These greenwashing companies made over $57 billion last quarter. 

Despite a focus on green messaging in public, oil and gas companies aren’t politically putting their money where their mouth is either. 

• The industry spent over $90 million on lobbying so far this year, trying to convince Congress to lift restrictions on fossil fuel development and weaken methane leak regulations. 
• Beyond directly lobbying, the industry spent $24 million working to elect their Republican allies to Congress. 
• Over 80% of that money went toward Republican candidates who campaigned on increasing domestic oil and gas production. 

Big Oil is putting profit above planetary survival. The industry and its products are one of the largest drivers of climate change, which is fueling extreme weather events globally. 

• At the same time, Big Oil companies’ profits this quarter were 8.7 times higher than the cost of extreme weather events over the same time period. 
• The profits are enough to cover 90% of estimated damage from Hurricane Ian. 
• Globally, profits from the six largest oil companies so far this year are enough to offset the cost of climate-intensified extreme weather events over the same period, with some left over. 

Let’s be clear: Big Oil is profiting off planetary destruction and padding billionaire executives’ bottom lines while the fuels they sell drive extreme weather globally. 

Table 1: Year-To-Date Profits Of Major Oil Companies

Amounts in millions. Hyperlinks go to earnings announcement filings.

Table 2: Year-To-Date Dividend Spending Of Major Oil Companies

Amounts in millions. Hyperlinks go to quarterly reports

Table 3: Year-To-Date Stock Buyback Spending Of Major Oil Companies

Amounts in millions. Hyperlinks go to quarterly reports