The world's oil companies are cashing in right now.
Prices are high, supply is scarce, and there are funds and licenses to explore new oil fields.
One reason is the Russian attack on Ukraine.
The price of Brent crude oil has risen sharply in recent months.
Oil giant Saudi Aramco has become the most valuable company in the world.
The state-owned company was valued at $2.42 trillion a few weeks ago based on its stock price.
If you deal with oil companies, you always come across figures that can make you dizzy: In 2019, before the pandemic, 100 million barrels of oil were consumed every day worldwide.
That's 100 million barrels, each with around 160 liters - a historical value, if you will.
Global oil production and burning is a disaster for our climate.
The fossil transport sector in particular produces huge amounts of greenhouse gases.
In order to somehow keep to the 1.5-degree limit of the Paris climate agreement, sectors of the economy that are harmful to the climate, such as the oil industry, would have to slam on the brakes, and do so immediately.
But the opposite is the case: The corporations are not reducing their oil production, they are expanding - the legitimacy is provided by the war in Ukraine.
Many new expansion plans are already on the table;
even in Germany oil is being drilled.
And all this against the background of the upcoming climate neutrality.
This episode of »Klimabericht«, our podcast on the climate crisis, is about oil companies.
How can it be that they are planning new projects and posting record profits when we want to be carbon neutral soon?
This time the guests are Susanne Götze from the SPIEGEL science department.
