To quote from Deloitte, oilers have sharply increased shareholder returns on the back of high energy prices after years of overspending on production growth. Oil and gas companies led all industries in cash distribution to shareholders in 2022, with a combined 8% dividend and buyback yield, consultancy Deloitte said in a study published in Houston on Tuesday September 12. Major institutional oil and gas investors would be open to receiving lower dividends and fewer share buybacks in favour of more spending on some energy transition projects. Oil majors Exxon Mobil, Chevron, BP, Equinor, Shell, and TotalEnergies collectively paid out a record $110 billion in dividends and share repurchases to investors last year. But investors holding $2.3 trillion of equity in the global oil and gas industry are changing their expectations about growth markets faster than energy company executives, Deloitte said. About 75% of surveyed investors stated that they would continue holding shares to accelerate investments in lower-carbon technologies, even if yields shrank to as little as 3%."There are divergent views," Deloitte research director Kate Hardin said. "Probably depending on where you are, with your dividends and share buybacks, you might be able to reduce that a bit."
This a shocker, shows how far the Financial Institutions are subject to political masters. I believe that private investors, who are a large minority disregarded by the Institutions at Annual General Meetings, must hope for when investing for income are dividends in excess of the rate of inflation otherwise there is no point. Should the ESG faction get its way, growth of course will be wantonly sacrificed by diverting funds to the altar of lower carbon mantras. Just when I am at the point of adding more SQZ to my ISA investment.
Silver
