in nearly a decade, has its swagger back — once again the indispensable player in a world desperate for energy. After years on the defensive as a fading industry that could no longer deliver for shareholders, the oil and gas sector is capitalizing on its advantage, showering investors with returns, pressing its policy agenda in Washington and rebuffing the entreaties of President Joe Biden to significantly increase production to ease high prices.
Short term gains, indeed. For the third quarter, San Antonio refiner Valero Energy Corp. said its profits jumped 400 percent from a year ago, to $2.8 billion. Houston independent oil company ConocoPhillips reported that profits surged 90 percent from a year earlier, to $4.5 billion. Exxon Mobil had its best quarter ever — earning nearly $20 billion in three months — and said it distributed $8.2 billion to shareholders while spending $5.7 billion on long-term investments.
The high costs of shale drilling — producers need oil at $65 a barrel to break even, according to Gilmer — limited profits. And when a global oil glut sent prices crashing from more than $100 a barrel in 2014 to less than $30 in early 2016, losses mounted. From 2015 through 2021, more than 600 energy companies, carrying more than $320 billion in debt, filed for bankruptcy, according to the Dallas-based law firm Haynes and Boone.
At the same time, fossil fuel alternatives are becoming more affordable and attractive to investors, and the transition to cleaner energy may come faster than previously expected. In 2021, global investment in low-carbon technologies reached $755 billion, a nearly 27 percent increase from $595 billion in 2020 and nearly triple the $264 billion spent in 2011, according to Bloomberg data.
Well that is terrible news for most of us. Great for the executives and stockholders personal wealth. Great for cantankerous oil workers that are happy to pillage the earth as long as they keep making six figures.
So glad war is working out for them!