it was a great year for oil companies such as exxon chevron shell and bp but the giants of european energy are still trading at significantly lower valuations than their american counterparts which means they could be buying opportunities all the major oil companies benefited from the surge in oil prices as the world emerged from the covid19 pandemic and russia invaded ukraine the war threatened to cut off some supplies from one of the world’s biggest exporters though the crude has kept flowing so far prices have dropped back since then but not before delivering a few record quarters of earnings along with plentiful buybacks unlike the broader market share prices have surged