State Secretary Csaba Dömötör said the war in Ukraine “is bad for everybody except large energy companies”.
In a video published on Facebook on Sunday, Dömötör insisted that some companies were getting “stinking rich” through soaring energy prices, with special regard to “large, international energy companies”. Referring to public data from 2022, Dömötör said Austria’s OMV had profits after tax amounting to 5 billion euros. Shell posted a record 40 billion dollars, twice as much as before the war. British Petrol also broke records with 28 billion dollars, over twice as much as in 2021. France’s Total earned a record 20.5 billion dollars, while US Chevron had revenue of 35 billion dollars and Exxon 56 billion dollars, Dömötör said. “It appears that imposing sanctions and the resulting high prices is no bad business … but not for us,” Dömötör said. He said “Hungary’s energy bill” had increased by 4,000 billion forints (EUR 10bn). “This must be paid by companies, families, and the Hungarian state; it is not right,” he said.