Oil supermajors recover from 2020 pandemic low
Big Oil generated a combined revenue of over 1,100 billion U.S. dollars in the 2021 fiscal year, with U.S.-based ExxonMobil spearheading the group. All companies notably improved their financial performance in 2021, as oil prices recovered from their pandemic-induced slump. For example, the revenue of ExxonMobil rose to 285.6 billion U.S. dollars – the highest value since 2014. Conglomerate Shell, which combined its separate Dutch and British shares in early 2022 and also changed its name from the previous Royal Dutch Shell, was the second-most profitable Big Oil entity. Shell’s net income rose back to over 20 billion U.S. dollars in 2021, some two billion U.S. dollars lower than ExxonMobil’s net profits that year.In April 2022, ExxonMobil was also considered the top oil and gas company based on market capitalization. Five of the ten most valuable oil and gas companies were supermajors.
Hydrocarbon production
In 2021, U.S.-based Chevron had a daily liquids production volume of roughly 1.8 million barrels. Of this, 858,000 barrels were pumped from oilfields in the company’s home market, an increase of over 50 percent since 2015.Across the Atlantic, French TotalEnergies, which rebranded itself in 2021 to reflect the company’s shift towards green energy production, reported a combined liquids production of 1.5 million barrels per day. Fellow Europe-based Eni was able to report similar levels of hydrocarbon production through its operations in Europe, Africa and Asia.
Like TotalEnergies, most European supermajors have begun diversifying their investment portfolio in order to reflect the growing prioritization of clean energy sources within the European Union.
