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Opinion
Liam Denning

Buy Back, Baby, Buy Back

With oil companies returning billions of dollars to shareholders amid a tight market, why not shift some of that cash from payouts to projects?

Profit pipeline.

Profit pipeline.

Photographer: Bloomberg

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Welcome to Elements, our daily energy and commodities newsletter. Today, Bloomberg Opinion’s Liam Denning asks why oil majors are returning so much cash to shareholders. In India, Gautam Adani’s energy companies are plunging amid a selloff across his empire, and in Europe, countries are floating a plan to cap Russian diesel at $100 a barrel. If you haven’t signed up to get Elements sent to your inbox, you can do that here.

Chevron Corp. is re-upping its discipline credentials for a cool $75 billion. Energy investors lost their taste for drill-baby-drill after the dissolute 2010s; upsized buybacks are the new down-spaced drilling.