ExxonMobil reports record profits of $11.4b
bbc.com
bbc.com
edit: one of the related stories goes in depth on this:
"Why are BP, Shell, and other oil giants making so much money right now?”
If consumers are relatively price inelastic, then they'll shoulder the cost of the tax.
If consumers are relatively price elastic (sensitive), then they (at the margins) switch to alternatives and then the producers ultimately pay via lower volumes and tighter profit margins.
I think we are seeing what happens when oil increases significantly for a prolonged period - emergence of EVs, switch to heat pumps, etc. etc.
On the other hand, I feel kinda disgusted after knowing how and where the money came from. With that context, the amount being spent by these oil giants on research are nowhere enough. They should be taxed to the ground and forced to spend all these profits for environmental research and recovery instead of giant buildings and luxury houses and big bonuses.
It is a sad state of affair though in reality. Jobs at these huge oil corps are still highly compensated compared to working in healthcare or generic engineering jobs.
Those who would suffer the most from climate change and environmental damages from drillings are not seeing a dime from these big oil corps. Just because the droughts and famine happen half the globe away doesn't mean they don't exist and there aren't human there being affected by them. Like I said, it is disgusting and not much different from direct exploitations.
It's notable that a company whose supply costs have gone up should be experiencing record profits. All other things being equal, you'd expect their profits to decrease.
Of course these events don't happen in a vacuum, and a company like that may well have made fortunate decisions (such as locking in low prices via options). But all oil companies have a habit of having record prices every single time prices go up -- not the kind of pattern that can be explained that way.
The effect is much larger than mere inflation, and occurs despite the significant variations in supply. A strong competing hypothesis is that they are raising prices disproportionately. That would imply that they were colluding on prices, otherwise they would undercut each other to drive the price down.
Proving that is difficult. But this kind of circumstantial evidence suggests that investigation is warranted.