Big Oil Has $150 Billion in Cash and Investors Want a Share

Oil-and-gas companies have built up a mountain of cash with few precedents in recent history. Wall Street has a few ideas on how to spend it—and new drilling isn’t near the top of the list. 

Many companies are cutting costs and raining cash on stock pickers like Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett, who believe the world’s thirst for oil will continue for years, if not decades, to come. The promise of money returned to shareholders helped turn energy shares into some of the few bright spots in a dark moment for markets last year, fueled by commodity prices that skyrocketed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.