Record profits in the European sector as well, as BP, Shell and energy commodities trader TotalEnergies disclose they're profiting in buy/selling commodities stock as much as they are actually producing and refining oil. Meanwhile, the Right continues blaming the Biden administration for high oil prices as a smokescreen on behalf of Big Oil, who hasn't seen quarterly returns like this since the last time commodities and derivatives almost destroyed our economy in 2008. As always, the numbers speak for themselves and Big Oil is the clear culprit.

BP, for example, reported last week a quarterly profit that was more than double last year's first quarter— far exceeding analyst expectations, thanks to high oil prices and what it described as an "exceptional" oil and gas trading business.


The strong first-quarter earnings were "driven by exceptional oil and gas trading, higher oil realizations and a stronger refining result, partly offset by the absence of Rosneft from the first quarter underlying result," BP said. The firm hailed "an exceptional gas marketing and trading result, albeit lower than in 2021." In its customers & products division, BP noted a return to profit in refining and "an exceptional oil trading result."


BP's combined refining and trading adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) surged to over $2 billion in the first quarter, from $400 million for Q4 2021 and $419 million for the same period last year, the earnings release showed. But the company—like the other majors—isn't breaking down the results from trading only, nor does it say how much it is earning from oil and/or gas trading.


BP likely made $1.2 billion from gas trading and another $400 million from oil trading in the first quarter, Oswald Clint at Bernstein has estimated.
For Shell, "trading plays an integrated part in our results always," CFO Sinead Gorman said on the call.


"But particularly this quarter, it's fair to say that in our chemicals and products area, particularly on the product side, we had very strong trading and optimization results," Gorman added, without specifying numbers.


"Trading is doing a fantastic job," said Wael Sawan, Integrated Gas, Renewables and Energy Solutions Director at Shell.
TotalEnergies noted the "outperformance by its oil trading activities" and "very good performance of the gas, LNG and electricity trading activities."


Outperformance in crude oil and petroleum products trading activities helped TotalEnergies see a jump in its adjusted net operating income for the Refining and Chemicals segment—that income surged to $1.12 billion for Q1 2022 from $243 million for the first quarter of 2021.
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-G...g-Profits.html