Oil companies earn $174 billion profits in nine months

International Oil Companies in the first nine months of this year, earned about $174 billion despite the volatility in the sector and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the report first published by The Guardian (UK), about 24 top oil companies made nothing less than $74 billion in the third quarter of 2021 as companies including Shell, Chevron, BP, ExxonMobil raked about $174 billion from January to September this year.

While the 2020 total full year profit of the oil companies fell by over 50 per cent, the current year saw most shareholders in the sector smiling to the bank.

This situation may, however, be different for countries like Nigeria, where the bumper harvest in the sector is being eroded by payment of subsidy.

Although the Federal Government plans to remove subsidies and pay transport grants of N5,000 to about 40 million Nigerians, the gains of the IOCs may not translate to more investment in Nigeria, especially in exploration and production as net-zero creates a pessimistic outlook for the sector amidst an elusive operating environment.

Instead of a boom, the absence of refineries and gas processing plants has drastically increased prices of petroleum products. While Liquified Petroleum Gas is currently selling for about N10, 000 per 12kg, diesel has skyrocketed to about N350 per litre.

Reportedly, ExxonMobil alone posted a net income of $6.75bn in the third quarter, its highest profit since 2017, and has reportedly seen its revenue jump by 60 per cent on the same period last year.

BP earned $3.3bn in third-quarter profit as the chief executive of BP, Bernard Looney, was quoted saying that “Rising commodity prices certainly helped.”

Reportedly, 11 of the oil companies gave payouts to shareholders worth more than $36.5bn collectively.