With oil, gas, and liquefied natural gas (LNG) still running the global energy show as the crown jewels within the ebbs and flows in the worldwide energy demand, the European and U.S. oil majors – the UK’s duo Shell and BP, France’s TotalEnergies, and Italy’s Eni alongside U.S.-based trio: ExxonMobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips – have collected a staggering $31.65 billion in combined profit during the second quarter of 2024. BP, Shell, Eni, ExxonMobil, and Conoco Phillips are among the lucky ones, which beat analysts’ expectations. However, TotalEnergies and Chevron got the shorter end of the stick with their financial performance falling below forecasts.
Main takeaways:
- Four European and three U.S. oil and gas behemoths rake in a combined profit of $31.65 billion in Q2 2024
- Some oil majors backpedaling on green and renewable energy arrangements
- European oil majors share $13.8 billion profit cake
- Shell’s adjusted profit reaches $6.3 billion
- BP’s profit stands at $2.8 billion
- Shell and BP face criticism over moves perceived to be scaling back their transformation and hindering the industry’s overall energy transition efforts
- TotalEnergies secures net profit of $3.8 billion
- Eni gets an adjusted net profit of €1.52 billion or $1.65 billion
- U.S. oil majors split a $16.2 billion profit pie
- ExxonMobil scores profit of $9.2 billion
- Chevron landed net profit of $4.4 billion
- ConocoPhillips picks up profit of $2.3 billion
With the fossil fuel era still in effect, Big Oil’s power is not likely to diminish anytime soon, especially in the wake of anticipated population growth, which puts an even greater emphasis on the need for collaborations, spanning different sectors and geographies, in the emerging energy security narrative and a highly complex and integrated new energy paradigm. The global governments’ investments in energy infrastructure are spotlighting the shift to low-carbon electrified, digitalized, and decentralized energy systems.
The global energy industry’s wheel of fortune keeps spinning, pushed by multiple competing factors from climate change to politics, enabling some regions to increasingly roll the dice on cleaner sources of supply, as others stubbornly stick to what they have always known, too mired in the old ways of doing things to see any beacons of lights in combining the old with the new to better respond to the challenges of today instead of clinging to the past to stop from sinking into the unknown.
This, in turn, heightens the risk of being derailed by the sunk cost fallacy, which is creeping into a wide spectrum of major financial energy decisions in the ongoing war between fossil fuels on one side and green and clean fuels on another. For some, the possibility of the coexistence of oil, gas, LNG, and renewables ignites a glimmer of hope that further innovation will speed up the decarbonization game and enable a balancing act to tackle the energy trilemma challenges.
The zest to spur the shift to clean energy power is continuing its growth spurt and oil and gas players have already joined the energy transition bandwagon. While some are moving heaven and earth to set themselves up for success in the renewables arena, others have recently started pulling back from their green endeavors to fully embrace the anticipated black gold and gas boom to ensure they will continue to thrive in the energy playground and safeguard their investments from continuing to rake up losses incurred so far in the renewable energy plays.
Despite the challenges fossil fuels are facing from climate activists and environmentalists, which continue to create roadblocks for the industry in the form of protests, lengthy litigation proceedings, and lawsuits that end up raising decarbonization bars, all oil majors and other big players in the black gold and gas sector have posted high net profits in 2Q 2024, with ExxonMobil reporting the largest quarterly gain, followed by Shell, TotalEnergies, Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips, and Eni bringing up the rear.
Global economic complexities and geopolitical factors have always played a part in the international energy firms’ profits as illustrated by the bonanza the companies enjoyed at the start of the Ukraine crisis in 2022. These factors still have the power to make or break the oil and gas players’ financial performance, which is even more pronounced in the regions engulfed in a crisis of some sort.
Source:https://www.offshore-energy.biz