WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump scolded ExxonMobil Holdings Corp and Chevron Corp for their soaring profits, as oil prices surged amid the war in Iran he launched in February alongside Israel.
Trump on Monday said the biggest US oil companies are “making too much money”, urging them to “give some of that back to the public” and cut retail petrol prices.
“I don’t like it. I should be the last one to say because I’m a big free enterprise guy, nobody bigger,” the president told reporters at the White House.
“You surprised I’m saying it? I’ll say it loud and clear. I’m not happy about it.”
ExxonMobil and Chevron made US$29bil combined in the second quarter, or US$318mil a day, and more than three times the same period a year ago.
High oil prices due to the Strait of Hormuz crisis was the main driver for their profits but earnings also surged at their refineries, which sell petrol, diesel and jet fuel.
Chevron shares fell about 2% on Monday afternoon as crude declined.
ExxonMobil’s stock fell 0.6%.
Earlier in the day, the president lambasted Chevron chief executive officer Mike Wirth, saying he failed to credit his administration’s pro-fossil fuel policies in an interview with Fox Business Network.
Wirth told Fox that the company’s second quarter performance stemmed, in part, from record US production and refinery throughput.
“The only thing he conveniently forgot to mention is that, without the genius foresight, strength, and stability, of the TRUMP Administration, the Oil Industry, and our Country itself, would be DEAD!” the president wrote on Truth Social.
Wirth did, however, say in the interview that the Trump administration had been “very helpful” in helping boost oil supplies.
“The policy actions that have been taken are the right ones,” he said.
Americans already grappling with the high cost of housing, food and consumer goods are now paying more than US$4 per gallon of regular petrol on average, about 30% higher than when Trump took office.
Voters have given Trump increasingly poor marks over his handling of the economy and the war, imperiling his fellow Republicans’ chances in November’s midterm elections.
Trump has come under intense political fire from the economic fallout from the war. In recent weeks, he’s pointed to Big Oil companies as a scapegoat for high fuel prices.
Trump in June ordered the Justice Department to investigate why petrol prices had not fallen, suggesting companies could be engaged in price gouging. — Bloomberg
