Chevron posts $5.1 billion for fourth quarter, its best earnings in nearly 10 years

Oil company Chevron this week posted strong gains for the fourth quarter of 2021, its best-earning quarter in nearly a decade as the company vows to continue pursuing green energy technologies.

The company said in a press release that it had earned $5.1 billion in the last three months of 2021, a figure which brought its full-year earnings to just over $15 billion. The quarterly figure is the highest the company has posted since 2008. 

Company Chairman and CEO Mike Wirth in the press release touted what he said was the company's commitment to lower-carbon green energies. 

"In 2021, we delivered record free cash flow and accelerated our progress towards a lower carbon future," Wirth said. 

"We're an even better company than we were just a few years ago," he continued. "We're more capital and cost efficient, enabling us to return more cash to shareholders."

The high profits were driven in large part by surging oil prices: Costs of oil have jumped significantly since the start of the COVID pandemic in early 2020, standing at around $80 a barrel at the beginning of 2022.