PROFITS AND PINK SLIPS

HOW BIG OIL AND GAS COMPANIES ARE NOT CREATING US JOBS OR PAYING THEIR FAIR SHARE

A Natural Resources Committee Democratic staff review (PDF) of recent earnings reports for the five largest investor-owned oil companies -- ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Shell and ConocoPhillips – demonstrates how high oil prices are translating into huge profits for these companies.

Together, the Big Five oil companies:

• Recorded $36 billion in profits in the second quarter of this year.
• Repurchased nearly $10 billion worth of their own stock in the second quarter alone, thereby boosting the value of remaining shares.
• Distributed more than $7 billion in dividend payments to their investors in the second quarter.
• Paid their executives a total of nearly $220 million in 2010.

Despite these massive profits, oil companies are not creating jobs in the United States or globally.

• Despite generating $546 billion in profits between 2005 and 2010, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, and BP combined to reduce their U.S. workforce by 11,200 employees over that time.
• Just in 2010 alone, the big 5 oil companies reduced their global workforce by a combined 4,400 employees, while making a combined $73 billion in profits.

The $43.6 billion in tax breaks the companies will receive over the next 10 years and the $53 billion in royalty-free drilling over the next 25 years make the situation particularly galling. The report explains, "Most oil and gas subsidies have been on the books in the United States for many decades. They represent an era when the oil and gas exploration was in its infancy, and when resources were plentiful but remained largely unexplored." As we know, that era is over for the oil and gas industries. Perhaps clean energy now stands where oil companies did when these subsidies were instituted, where government investment would yield major benefits, but for oil, this kind of massive taxpayer subsidy is unnecessary.

Read or download the full review here.

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