- Hurricane Milton tornadoes kill four in Florida amid rescue efforts
- South Korea's Han Kang wins literature Nobel
- Ikea posts fall in annual sales after lowering prices
- Stock markets diverge, oil gains after China rebounds
- World can't 'waste time' trading climate change blame: COP29 hosts
- South Korean same-sex couples make push for marriage equality
- Mumbai declares day of mourning for Indian industrialist Ratan Tata
- 7-Eleven owner restructures to fight takeover
- Sri Lanka recovering faster than expected: World Bank
- Hong Kong, Shanghai rally as most markets track Wall St record
- Uniqlo owner reports record annual earnings
- Hong Kong, Shanghai rally as markets track Wall St record
- Indonesia biomass drive threatens key forests: report
- Mumbai mourns Indian industrialist Ratan Tata
- China opens $71 bn 'swap facility' to boost markets
- Asian markets track Wall St record as Hong Kong, Shanghai stabilise
- 'Denying my potential': women at Japan's top university call out gender imbalance
- China's central bank says opens up $70.6 bn in liquidity to boost market
- Youth facing unprecedented wave of violence, UN envoy warns
- 'A casino in every kitchen': Brazil's online gambling craze
- Nobel chemistry winner sees engineered proteins solving tough problems
- Discord seen as online home for renegades
- US forecasts severe solar storm starting Thursday
- Ratan Tata: Indian mogul who built a global powerhouse
- One dead as storm Kirk tears through Spain, Portugal, France
- Indian business titan Ratan Tata dead at 86
- Fed minutes highlight divisions over rate cut decision
- Steve McQueen debuts new WWII film at London festival
- Nobel winners hope protein work will spur 'incredible' breakthroughs
- What are proteins again? Nobel-winning chemistry explained
- AI steps into science limelight with Nobel wins
- Overshooting 1.5C risks 'irreversible' climate impact: study
- Demis Hassabis, from chess prodigy to Nobel-winning AI pioneer
- Global stocks diverge as Chinese shares tumble
- Time runs out in Florida to flee Hurricane Milton
- Chad issues warning ahead of more devastating floods
- Creator's death no bar to new 'Dragon Ball' products
- Chinese stocks tumble on lack of fresh stimulus
- Trio wins chemistry Nobel for protein design, prediction
- Braving war: Lebanon's 'badass' airline defies odds
- US weighs Google breakup in landmark trial
- Chinese stocks tumble on stimulus upset, Asia tracks Wall St higher
- 7-Eleven owner confirms new takeover offer from Couche-Tard
- A US climate scientist sees hurricane Helene's devastation firsthand
- Can carbon credits help close coal plants?
- Boeing suspends negotiations with striking workers
- 7-Eleven owner's shares spike on report of new buyout offer
- Your 'local everything': what 7-Eleven buyout battle means for Japan
- AI-aided research, new materials eyed for Nobel Chemistry Prize
- The US economy is solid: Why are voters gloomy?
Energy majors look for mega profits to roll on
The world's top oil and gas companies amassed record profits last year after Russia's invasion of Ukraine drove prices higher -- and they can expect the good times to roll on despite calls to tax them more.
The net profits earned by the five majors -- Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP and TotalEnergies -- surpassed $150 billion in 2022, and would have been closer to $200 billion without costly withdrawals from Russia.
The massive sums -- in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis sparked by soaring energy costs and mounting damage from climate change -- have sparked more charges of profiteering from politicians and activists.
US President Joe Biden called the profits "outrageous" in his annual State of the Union speech on Tuesday and urged a tax hike on share buybacks to encourage energy firms to invest more.
The surge in energy prices -- Brent crude flirted with $140 per barrel last March and European gas prices jumped by a factor of 15 during the summer to hit 350 euros per megawatt hour -- mechanically drove profits higher without energy firms having to invest in more production or cut costs.
Prices have declined since then, but "we can have further spikes as the war in Ukraine is far from over," warned Adi Imsirovic, a senior research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.
Despite the uncertainty in the economic outlook triggered by soaring energy prices, the OPEC oil cartel does not expect a drop in oil demand.
On the contrary, it foresees demand continuing to increase, rising by 2.2 million barrels per day in 2023 after climbing by 2.5 mbd in 2022.
China abandoning its zero-Covid policy should support that increase in demand, which will serve to keep prices high, as long as OPEC members continue to restrain production.
- 'Solidarity contribution' -
With oil firms set to continue to rake in prodigious profits, pressure is likely to mount.
At the end January, Biden tweeted that oil companies were "using these record profits to pay out their wealthy shareholders instead of investing in production and lowering costs for Americans."
"It's unacceptable," he wrote, adding that it was time for oil giants to help lower prices for consumers.
France's TotalEnergies was the latest to announce record earnings on Wednesday, reporting a $20.5 billion net profit for 2022.
The company said it was ready to consider another discount at the pump, having run a similar promotion last year.
Britain and the European Union have already put in place taxes on windfall profits.
Exxon has challenged the legality of the EU's "solidarity contribution", with chief executive Darren Woods saying last month that the tax was not legal and not what is needed.
"What's needed right now is more supply. And instead, what's been put in place is a penalty on the broad energy sector," Woods said.
The Exxon chief said the company benefitted from the favourable market but also from having made investments in expanding production during the pandemic.
"We leaned in when others leaned out," he said.
- Slower green transition -
Warwick Business School professor David Elmes said investments have paled in comparison to the cash oil firms are showering on shareholders.
"The recent results have been disappointing in that the level of investment supporting their move from fossil fuels has risen -– but not as much as the amount the companies are paying to shareholders as dividends or by buying back their own shares," he said.
Oxford's Imsirovi said governments continue to subsidise fossil fuels, which boosts demand and prices, while slowing the transition to green energy.
After its underlying profit more than doubled last year to $27.7 billion, BP reduced on Tuesday its target for cutting carbon emissions.
"We need to achieve net-zero (global emissions), but governments continue to subsidise fossil fuels. As a result, demand keeps growing instead of falling," Imsirovi said.
Imsirovi argued against governments stepping in to protect all consumers by subsidising prices.
"That only prolongs the crisis and high prices," he said. "Targeted cash transfers to the needy is better and cheaper."
X.Cheung--CPN