02-13-2022, 07:07 PM
![[Image: 20220213-oil_rig_crude-Pixabay_pic.jpg]](https://media.thevibes.com/images/uploads/covers/_large/20220213-oil_rig_crude-Pixabay_pic.jpg)
PARIS – Soaring energy prices have brought massive profits to oil majors – along with fierce criticism from environmentalists and politicians at a time when consumers are left with rising bills.
US firm ExxonMobil, France’s TotalEnergies, and UK giants Shell and BP announced in the past week 2021 profits totalling a whopping US$66.7 billion (RM279.4 billion).
It marked a huge turnaround from 2020, when they posted losses as the pandemic emerged, prompting lockdowns that brought the world economy to a grinding halt and caused crude prices to collapse.
But oil and gas prices rallied big time last year, surging to US$70 per barrel after briefly sinking into negative territory in 2020.
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