Page 11 - NorthAmOil Week 06 2023

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Biden acknowledges oil will

remain necessary in US

US US President Joe Biden has conceded that oil will he said. “It’s outrageous. Why? They invested
be needed in the US for some time yet, despite too little of that profit to increase domestic pro-
the impact of the energy transition as it picks up duction and keep gas prices down. Instead, they
pace. used those record profits to buy back their own
“We’re still going to need oil and gas for a stock, rewarding their CEOs and shareholders,”
while,” Biden said in his annual State of the he continued.
Union speech on February 7. “We’re going to “Corporations ought to do the right thing.
need oil for at least another decade, and beyond That’s why I propose that we quadruple the tax
that.” on corporate stock buybacks to encourage long-
The comments had not been included in term investments instead,” Biden added.
a draft of the speech that had been circulated ExxonMobil and Chevron last week reported
beforehand. record profits. ExxonMobil recorded a profit of
The US leader has had a very tense and mixed $55.7bn and Chevron posted a profit of $35.5bn.
relationship with the oil and gas sector. In the In Europe, Shell has since posted a profit of
autumn of 2022, just ahead of the midterm elec- $39.9bn, France’s TotalEnergies a $36.2bn profit
tions, he criticised US oil companies for “war and BP a profit of $27.7bn.
profiteering” and suggested imposing a windfall In his speech, Biden referred to the climate
tax on them were production not to be increased. crisis then continued: “We are still going to need
High gasoline prices were weighing heavily oil and gas for a while. We do! But there’s so
on Democrat candidates at the time. much more to do. We have got to finish the job.
But in contrast, Biden’s high-profile Inflation And we pay for these investments in our future
Reduction Act (IRA), passed in August, rein- by finally making the wealthiest and biggest cor-
stated two oil and gas lease auctions in the US porations begin to pay their fair share.”
Gulf of Mexico, They will be held in March and The American Petroleum Institute’s (API)
September 2023. The legislation is usually char- vice president, Ben Marter, responded to Biden’s
acterised as purely climate legislation. speech.
At another point in the State of the Union “The president is right that Americans and
speech, Biden sounded a more familiar theme. the world will continue to need affordable, relia-
“You may have noticed that Big Oil just ble energy for decades to come. So why attack the
reported record profits. Last year, they made industry working day and night to provide it?”
$200bn in the midst of a global energy crisis,” he said in an emailed comment to Bloomberg.™

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