Rapacious oil producers
The world's biggest international oil companies (IOCs) made a combined net profit of nearly $US150 billion in 2007 (Source: Congressional Research Service). This may be a paltry amount compared to the profits of the many national oil companies (NOCs), a number of which are much bigger than any of the IOCs. In fact ExxonMobil (with a 2007 profit of $US40.61 billion) is the largest IOC but only the 14th largest oil producer in the world. Profit figures are not publicly available for the NOCs.
Historically oil producers have poured most of their profits back into finding new oil reserves but the independent oil companies are spending a smaller proportion of their profits finding new oil than they used to and are instead paying bigger dividends or buying back shares. Still, according to an Ernst & Young analysis of public information of about 70 different oil and gas companies, exploration costs and development costs incurred were $US289.8 billion in 2007.
These are big numbers! The owners of oil companies have been getting fat for years by extracting natures 'free' resources which pollute the planet and the oil companies don't clean it up.
It is time they paid nature back.
They should pay for greenhouse gas mitigation? This would be as simple as investing all that money mentioned above in sustainable and renewable energy sources now. This would also be strategically good for their future, ensuring 'sustainable' profits for years to come.
Posted by Michael Lockhart on 30th April, 2009 | Comments | Trackbacks
Tags: General Sustainability, Business Sustainability
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