While Americans were reckoning with sky-high gas prices at the pump last year, the country's biggest oil giant was raking in more money than ever. Exxon Mobil, one of the world's largest oil companies, reported on Tuesday that it made $56 billion in profits in 2022. That's the most a Western oil company has ever earned and averages out to around $6.3 million an hour over the course of the year.
It's not just Exxon. Other major oil companies such as Chevron and Shell are expected to report similar results in the coming weeks, pushing their combined profits to around $200 billion, according to the financial markets data firm Refinitiv.
