Brief - The Hustle

Backing out of Russia is costing oil companies billions

Written by Rob Litterst | May 9, 2022 6:10:22 AM

For some corporations, leaving Russia isn’t easy — take McDonald’s, which is losing $50m/mo. by shutting down its Russian restaurants.

But oil companies are making Mickey D’s losses look like child’s play: 4 of petroleum’s biggest players have lost a collective ~$38B by shutting down Russian operations, per WSJ.

Among the group…

… BP was hit the hardest, taking a $25.5B accounting charge in Q1. Shell, TotalEnergies, and Exxon have each taken multi-billion dollar charges of their own.

But it’s not all doom and gloom in the world of petrol.

With the US national average for a gallon of regular gas up ~46% YoY, those same oil companies are swimming in cash.

Case in point: BP’s stock is up 5% since taking the loss.