Big Oil Resists Push To Prioritize Output Growth

It is profit season again, and Big Oil is raking it in, both in Europe and in the U.S., as soaring oil and gas prices boost earnings. What they are not boosting, however, is production. Big Oil is signaling it has no plans to rearrange its priorities. Higher oil prices drove the first-quarter adjusted earnings at Exxon above analyst estimates as the jump in prices more than offset lower oil and gas production in the Middle East and Kazakhstan. Chevron also beat analyst expectations with its first-quarter net result, reporting a 4% rise in upstream…