Considerable results. Driven by the rebound in hydrocarbon prices triggered in the second half of 2021 and accentuated since the start of the war in Ukraine, the profits of the oil groups have reached record levels in recent months. Overview.

• The French company TotalEnergies doubles its net profit in one year

In the second quarter, TotalEnergies will benefit net plus than double over the year, for 5.7 million dollars, after 4.9 million in the first quarter and 16 million over the ensemble of the year 2021. A record.

The French giant’s second-quarter profit came despite a new $3.5bn provision linked to the potential impact of international sanctions on the value of its stake in Russian group Novatek.

• Record profits for the British Shell and BP

For its part, the British Shell published this Thursday a huge net profit of 18,000 million dollars in the second quarter. The oil company had already posted a record first-quarter profit of $7.1 billion, despite the heavy burden linked to the phasing out of its Russian oil and gas activities.

Britain’s other hydrocarbon giant is the latest oil major to announce record profits. The group’s share of net profit thus multiplied by three in one year in the second quarter, to 9,260 million euros. On the other hand, in the first half, BP recorded a net loss of 11,130 million dollars, the group having spent during the first three months of the year an after-tax charge of 24,400 million dollars after its exit from the Russian Rosneft in the after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Faced with the miraculous profits of the oil giants, London announced in May a one-time tax on the energy sector, in part to help finance government aid to the poorest households in the face of the cost of living crisis.

• The Americans ExxonMobil and Chevron have earned nearly 30 billion dollars

US hydrocarbon giants ExxonMobil and Chevron, in the crosshairs of the Biden administration that accuses them of not making enough efforts to limit the rebound in prices at gas stations, have also generated record profits in the second quarter.

With crude prices surging above $100 in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and juicy refinery margins, ExxonMobil earned $17.9bn over the period and Chevron $11.6bn.

The two groups will take advantage of this financial windfall to reduce their level of indebtedness, and pamper their shareholders: ExxonMobil paid them $7.6 billion in total during the quarter while Chevron increased, from $10 billion to $15 billion, the high end. of its share repurchase program for the year.

• The Norwegian Equinor pockets almost 7,000 million dollars in the second quarter

Norwegian energy giant Equinor published sharply higher quarterly results, also driven by the rebound in the price of hydrocarbons, particularly natural gas.

In the second quarter, its net profit approached 6.8 billion dollars compared to 1.9 billion dollars in the same period of 2021. “The Russian invasion of Ukraine affected the already tense energy markets and created an energy crisis marked by high prices, which affects people and all sectors. of society,” Equinor CEO Anders Opedal said in a statement.

Equinor also took advantage of higher oil prices, pocketing an average of nearly $107 per barrel sold, a 68% increase in one year.

• The Spanish company Repsol registers a 165% increase in its net profit

The Spanish oil group Repsol announced a strong increase in its profits in the first half of the year thanks to the high price of oil due to the war in Ukraine and the recovery of the economy after the Covid-19 pandemic. The net result of the Spanish giant reached 2,540 million euros in this period, 165% more than the figure for the first six months of 2021 (959 million).

This benefit is also higher than the forecasts of analysts surveyed by the financial information provider Factset, who expected an average of 1,930 million euros in profit. The good results of the first semester, which are added to a solid year 2021 (2,500 million profits), allow “partially offsetting the losses recorded in 2019 and 2020” (7,100 million in total), due in particular to “the pandemic”, underlines Repsol.