re: Editorial: What Biden Is Getting Wrong About Big Oil’s Profits

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Another point that gets lost in some of this, two other scenarios that have allowed oil & gas companies to make more:

1- Decisions by companies like BP and Shell to divest of more and more “dirty energy” assets…someone had to gobble that up.

2- Quite a few E&Ps folded or cashed out in 2020, so someone had to take that on.

Those still existing Permian shale operators like XTO (Exxon), Chevron, OXY, Pioneer, etc are making more because they now have more market share

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3 - possibly to a lesser extent, but still mention worthy:

the O&G corporations got hit hard in 2020/2021 during the pandemic. Most of the majors went through massive efforts to become more lean. Layoffs, selling assets, shutting down offices, canceling all travel, nixing recruiting and hiring completely, and pinching everywhere they could to decrease the cost of operations to maintain a profit once the market stabilized. And I assure you they haven’t exactly loosened to purse strings since nor are they now. So yeah, when you are forced overnight to become as lean as possible and WTI prices explode….your profits do look pretty good compared to years past.