This blog was updated on March 7, March 1, and February 16, 2023
This winter, Big Oil companies announced their 2022 profits, and records have been shattered.
We have now tallied the the total profits of the five biggest Canadian oil and gas companies.
Their profits combined are $38.3 billion!
Big Oil is raking in outrageous sums during a climate crisis, capitalizing on rising prices, while life gets harder for the rest of us. Of every dollar of inflation over the last two years in Canada, 25 cents of that has gone to oil and gas and mining extraction profits.
Let’s take a look at these profits, taking note of international companies and also focusing on the Canadian industry.
International giant Exxon Mobil reported $56 billion (USD) in profit for 2022, “setting not only a company record but a historic high for the Western oil industry.”
A decent chunk of that profit came from the $7.3 billion (CAD) in profit of Imperial Oil, which is essentially the Canadian branch of Exxon. Imperial’s core operations are in the oil sands.
Shell also posted obscene profits of $39.9 billion (USD). In addition to operations around the world, in Canada, operating as Shell Canada, the company is behind the massive LNG Canada facility in Kitimat, B.C., which would be supplied with fracked gas through the Coastal GasLink pipeline. This project and other LNG proposals, if completed, would be terrible news for the climate.
American multinational Chevron posted $36.5 billion (USD) in profits. In Canada, Chevron is invested in oil rigs offshore of Newfoundland, and in operations in northern Alberta.
We’ll be adding to this blog as announcements come in until early March. A few coming up include:
- Suncor: February 14 (updated below)
- Cenovus: February 16 (updated below)
- CNRL: March 2 (updated below)
- Tourmaline: March 7
We expect these companies to also break their own profit records and, unfortunately, funnel the money to shareholders. At the same time, Canada’s oil and gas industry is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, and are not doing much to reduce these emissions. Unless the federal government puts a cap on oil and gas emissions, Big Oil will continue to pollute and reap massive profits.
Take action and tell the Canadian government to put a cap on oil and gas emissions.
Update, February 16, 2023:
Canadian giant Suncor posted a whopping $9.077 billion in profit for 2022. That was by the measure of “net income,” but by another measure called “adjusted operating earning,” Suncor’s profits for the year were $11.566 billion. The difference between the two figures is not based on accounting adjustments the company made related to ownership stakes it holds in oil extraction projects.
Suncor more than doubled its profit from 2021 to 2022 when using the net income measure, and more than tripled it when looking at adjusted operating earnings.
Cenovus, Canada’s third largest oil producer, posted a profit of $6.45 billion in 2022. That was more that ten times higher than in 2021!
Update, March 2, 2023:
Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNRL) posted $10.937 billion in profits for 2022. That’s up from $7.664 billion a year ago.
Update, March 6, 2023:
Tourmaline Oil, Canada’s largest fossil gas (aka “natural gas”) producer, just announced 2022 profit of $4.487 billion. That’s up 121% from 2021.
The combined 2022 profit of Tourmaline, Suncor, Cenovus, Imperial, and CNRL is $38.3 billion! That’s more than double their profits of $16.9 billion in 2021.
