October 27, 2022 12:29 PM UTC

Again, Oil and Gas Companies WANT High Gas Prices

• 2 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

We’ve been posting regular reminders of this each time a new story emerges about the obscene profits being collected by oil and gas companies. The reason that gasoline prices have been so high (though they are going down) is not because of President Biden or Gov. Jared Polis or government regulations.

To paraphrase an old line from the Bill Clinton campaign, “it’s the oil and gas companies, stupid.”

As CNN explains:

Shell will buy back $4 billion worth of shares and increase its dividend by 15% after posting another gigantic quarterly profit thanks to strong oil and gas prices. [Pols emphasis]

The UK company posted net income of $9.45 billion in the third quarter, more than double the $4.1 billion it recorded a year ago. The result was driven by a strong performance in its oil exploration and production business, Shell said…

…The third-quarter performance means that Shell has reported profit of more than $30 billion for the first nine months of the year — 58% more than it recorded for the whole of 2021. It posted a record $11.5 billion profit in the second quarter, when oil prices were above $100 a barrel.

“We are delivering robust results at a time of ongoing volatility in global energy markets,” Shell CEO Ben van Beurden said in a statement. [Pols emphasis]

During Monday’s candidate forums in Grand Junction, Republican gubernatorial (no) hopeful Hiedi Heidi Ganahl and Senate candidate Joe O’Dea both talked about how they want to “unleash Colorado’s oil and gas industry” which has been unfairly restrained by government interference, yada, yada…

Gasoline prices rose to unprecedented levels because oil and gas companies made the conscious decision to reduce production in order to return more of its profits to shareholders.

Oil and gas executives HAVE BEEN SAYING THIS OUT LOUD for most of 2022. Let’s go ahead and take their word on this, shall we?