Sources: Compiled from the quarterly results of each company, publicly available on the investor pages of each company’s websites.

$135 billion

Not the 2010 GDP of Hungary or Kuwait, no it’s slightly more than either of those. In fact, if it was a figure for the 2010 GDP of a nation, it would rank 54th, between Kuwait and Ukraine.

It is in fact the combined 2011 profits of the five largest international oil companies.  These are the same companies that receive much of the over $10 billion in subsidies and tax breaks that the federal government lavishes upon the oil and gas sector every year.

All in the name of maintaining our addiction to oil at precisely the time when we should be reducing oil use to prevent catastrophic climate change.

We need to get the money out of politics and get serious about standing up to Big Oil.

Watch this space…