Big Oil’s chemical high

Covid swells petrochemical earnings at ExxonMobil, Shell and Total

Fate loves irony. Having been crushed by the 2020 Covid-induced oil crash, integrated US and European supermajors are reporting giddying post-lockdown earnings. Profits in the second quarter were propelled in part by handsome margins for petrochemicals, which are used inter alia in medical equipment used to fight the pandemic. Meanwhile, the energy tran…