Oil Giants' Substantial Profits Revive Calls for Windfall Taxes

Global energy giants, including Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp, posted another round of huge quarterly profits, benefiting from surging natural gas and fuel prices that have boosted inflation around the world and led to fresh calls to further tax the sector.
Four of the five largest global oil companies have now reported results, showing a combined net income of nearly $50 billion, lifted by tight global markets and disruption following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reported.
The sheer size of the profits has revived calls from politicians and consumer groups to impose more taxes on the companies to raise funds to offset the hit to households, businesses and the wider economy from higher energy costs. They have also criticized big oil companies for not doing enough to raise production to offset rising fuel and heating costs.
Chevron Chief Financial Officer Pierre Breber warned in an interview with Reuters that "taxing production will just reduce it."
The company reported its second-highest profit of $11.2 billion. However, the company's global production is down so far this year from a year ago, and other US oil companies signaled that output in the top-producing US shale region is waning.
Shell CEO Ben Van Beurden has said the energy industry "should be prepared and accept" that it will face higher taxes to help struggling parts of society. The company earned more than $9 billion in the third quarter, putting it on track to surpass its record annual profit of $31 billion set in 2008.