Guardian: 'Buoyed by oil commodity prices that soared following the turmoil caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, major fossil fuel businesses enjoyed a bonanza in the first quarter of the year, making $93.3bn in total profits.
'Shell made $9.1bn in profit from January to March, almost three times what it made in the same period last year, while Exxon raked in $8.8bn, also a near threefold increase on 2021.
Chevron upped its profits to $6.5bn and BP reveled in its highest first-quarter profits in a decade, making $6.2bn. Coterra Energy, a Texas-based firm, had the largest relative windfall of the 28 companies, with a 449% increase in profits on last year, to $818m.
'The rocketing profits, at a time when inflation has surged in many countries, has prompted several of the companies to return billions of dollars to shareholders via share buybacks and dividends.'