It’s amazing really that shareholders in Big Oil really only ever seem to care about the size of the bonuses of the top executives or the size of their reserves. The fact that their investments are fuelling climate change is not a concern for mainstream investors.
Big Oil Profits
Shell’s Tar Sands Operations Make a Loss
Its been a bad year so far for the oil barons. The oil price has plummeted through the floor and so have their profits. Yesterday BP announced a drop of 62 per cent and today Shell announced a similar reduction of reduced profits of 58 per cent, the first time it has posted a quarterly … Read More
“So its heads I win, tails you lose”
The oil companies are beginning to look like the banks. During the good years, they cream off ridiculous profits with huge bonuses paid to senior management and directors. And in the bad times they get out of the begging bowl to ask for more money from the government.
BP “Exerting Too Much Influence” at the EU
Despite announcing profits of $25 billion yesterday, shares in the oil giant fell by over 4% after it reported a 24% drop in quarterly profits for the last quarter of 2008. Like the other oil majors, the company was hit by the falling oil price. Oil industry analysts said that the company’s profits were “well … Read More
Despite the Crunch, Shell Makes $86 Million a Day
We might be in the biggest recession since the 1930s, with thousands of people losing their jobs on a daily basis, but at least someone is still making money. Yesterday, Shell announced it had made the biggest UK annual profit in history, despite suffering its biggest drop in quarterly profits in a decade.Â
Meanwhile Big Oil Makes $10 Million an Hour…
So its free-fall on the stock-markets again. This morning the London market plunged by over 5 per cent as the chaos in the world’s financial markets continued. All the expectations are that Wall Street will dive this afternoon. What is spooking the markets is the thought of a painful and long-lasting depression. But in the … Read More
“Where is your corporate conscience?”
As oil climbed to a humungous record of $135 a barrel, yesterday US senators once again lined up Big Oil’s biggest executives and pummeled them with questions. “Where is the corporate conscience?” Senator Dick Durbin, Democrat from Illinois, asked the top executives of the five largest U.S. oil companies, who have earned a whopping $36 … Read More
Democrats Seek Special Tax on Oil Profits
Democrats in the US Senate yesterday called for a temporary special tax on oil companies’ profits and a rollback of $17 billion in oil industry tax breaks as part of an energy package. The proposed 25 percent profits tax would apply just to oil company earnings above what would be considered “reasonable” and only if … Read More
Exxon Struggles for Growth
ExxonMobil may have record a whopping $11 billion profit yesterday, but its share still fell nearly 4 per cent as analysts warned that the company might fail to grow at all in the next five years. The bottom line is the world’s biggest energy group’s oil production fell almost 10 per cent in the first … Read More
At Least Someone is Happy
As consumers from Atlanta to Aberdeen struggle with soaring gas prices, and Clinton and Obama squabble over gas tax rebates, at least the oil barons are happy. Royal Dutch Shell and BP have racked up combined profits of over $14bn in just three months, thanks to the soaring prices of oil and gas. The rival … Read More