The US’s largest oil companies have pumped record profits in recent months as Americans struggled to afford gasoline, food and other basic necessities. ExxonMobil Friday reported an unprecedented profit of £14.77 billion ($17.85 billion) for the second quarter, almost four times as much as in the same period a year ago.
Chevron also made a record £9.61 billion ($11.62 billion).
The skyrocketing profits were announced a day after British Shell shattered its own profit record.
Rising energy prices have scared consumers and become a political flashpoint for the 46th president.
Joe Biden claimed in June, “We’re going to make sure everyone knows Exxon’s profits.”
He added, “Exxon made more money than God this year.”
However, in a recent letter to some of America’s largest oil companies, Mr. Biden chided them for making huge profits from price hikes and called for “immediate action to increase the supply of gasoline, diesel and other refined products.”
Kathryn Porter, an energy consultant at Watt Logic, claimed that the POTUS’s actions since taking office “consistently signaled its intention to protect the climate by reducing oil and gas production” and that it “supported this with new regulations for the industry”.
She told The Telegraph: “But he didn’t consider the impact of a price shock.
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However, according to the American Automobile Association, the price is now slightly lower at £3.50 ($4.26).
Biden has lashed out at oil and gas companies, complaining that they make a lot of money from refining and that they need to ramp up production.
In a recent analysis, Katie Tubb, a research fellow at Republican think tank The Heritage Foundation, took a different view: “We have to give Biden credit for the fact that policies have consequences, and the administration’s many attempts to shirk responsibility for what the government does. only logical conclusion from policies designed to forcibly wean Americans off fossil fuels: higher prices.
Biden, meanwhile, has messed up his promise to block new oil and gas licenses as the government pushes to lower gasoline prices.
The Department of the Interior held the first sale of onshore leases for federal land since he took office last month.