Energy Giants Post Record Profits Amid Accelerating Climate Crisis
BP and Saudi Aramco report billions in earnings as droughts and wildfires intensify across Europe, sparking public outcry.
Image: Eddie Pollard / AI
Sarah Connor
BP's second-quarter profit more than doubled to $5.73bn, while Saudi Aramco's net profit surged by 44% to $32.69bn.
"Clearly not everyone is feeling the pain of the energy crisis," Rosie Downes declared. "While BP banks another round of enormous profits, millions of households are paying the price through sky-high energy bills and a climate crisis accelerating rapidly out of control with increasingly severe heatwaves, wildfires and droughts."
Simon Francis added that "The price shock profiteers have banked more billions from a crisis that has created real hardship for millions of households."
Angharad Hopkinson asserts BP has driven record-breaking droughts, unprecedented wildfires, and extraordinary excess heatwave deaths. Corporate gains, she claims, have become entirely divorced from the public good, with ordinary people feeling the heat when polluters should be paying the price.
The international benchmark Brent crude is up 1.3% to $85.08 a barrel; gasoline prices averaged $4.10 per gallon in the US on Monday, nearly 40% higher than before the war with Iran started.
Rivals including Shell and ExxonMobil have also reported stronger profits.
BP plans to sell off its US biogas business, Archaea, a move that could signal a shift in its operational focus.
However, Angharad Hopkinson claims that prolonging this parasitic relationship by trying to squeeze the last few drops of expensive oil out of the North Sea is sheer folly. Shell and Equinor need to follow suit and give up the Jackdaw and Rosebank fields, she urged, calling on the government to hold fast on no new oil and gas.
Meg O’Neill acknowledged that performance over the past few years has not met expectations, stating, "We have not delivered consistently, we have written off too much value, and our costs and liabilities are not resilient enough in a low price environment."
O'Neill expressed confidence that urgent action is being taken to grow long-term value for shareholders.
Angharad Hopkinson claims true investment in the clean energy industries of the future is our only dependable path to good jobs, lower bills, and long-term prosperity.