US President Joe Biden today attacked oil giant ExxonMobil for refusing to increase oil production – whose soaring price is one of the reasons for rising US inflation.
Biden said this a few hours after it was announced that the inflation rate in May had reached 8.6%, on an annualized basis – a record of 41 years, and that the consumer confidence index was at an all-time low.
The president of the United States was asked by a journalist whether his government intends to target the profits of the oil companies, and launched an attack on Exxon – one of the largest oil producers in the world.
“Why not tell me how much Exxon has earned in the current quarter?” Biden replied. “This year they made more money than God.”
The president also referred to the high inflation rate, saying that it was the Russian invasion of Ukraine that pushed fuel prices to a new high – $ 4.986 per gallon.
Biden has blamed oil producers for not increasing output, which could lead to a drop in the price of black liquid: “I want to say one thing to oil companies – they have 9,000 permits for new drilling. But they are not drilling. And why? Because they will make more money if they do not increase “Oil production – so that its price will go up.” According to him, the second reason why the companies do not make new drillings is that they “make their own purchases of their shares – and do not make new investments.”
Exxon Mobile doubled its first-quarter profit to $ 5.5 billion, and its revenue jumped 52.4% to $ 87.7 billion. The company announced in April that it intends to triple the volume of its share repurchases, and purchase shares worth up to $ 30 billion by next year. In the first quarter of 2022, Exxon distributed about $ 5.9 billion to shareholders – $ 3.8 billion in dividends and $ 2.1 billion in share repurchases.