OIL COMPANIES and THE WINDFALLS OF WAR
Putin’s war on Ukraine is approaching its one-year anniversary, with little to suggest it will be stopping any time soon. Looking at the nightly news footage of the savagery of Putin’s scorched earth policy, it’s impossible not to think that war is hell.
However, war offers a highly profitable opportunity for some industries, e.g., arms makers. Unsurprisingly, oil companies are among the Ukraine war’s biggest — if not the biggest — beneficiaries. The reason? Too much demand in the face of too little supply.
ExxonMobil recently announced record annual earnings for 2022. The company’s annual revenue was $95.43 billion, with net income of $55.7 billion. The record exceeded its 2008 high watermark of $45.22 billion.
Exxon is hardly alone in making a hefty profit off the Ukraine war. Chev-ron, too, recorded record annual earnings — breaking its 2011 record by $10 billion. It did so despite missing its fourth-quarter earnings estimates by 6.6 percent. The shortfall was partly due to the company paying a windfall profit tax that it managed to avoid in the third quarter — more about such taxes in a moment.
Shell has also attained a new earnings record. It reported just under $40 billion for 2022. It bested its previous best by over $11 billion. The comp-any’s 2022 profit was double that of 2021 and the…
