In business profit isn't a dollar amount at least not the way most people view it. Profitability is based on percentage of revenue and not how much money is in the bank. Yes, one has a lot to do with another however it is all percentages.
Of course I'm talking about oil comanies, because they are being questioned about their profits. It could as easily happen to any of us that have our own business or even direct one for someone else. Just because you show a dollar amount of profit does not mean you made money, because on financial reports, the profit is shown, but then shortly therafter that "pool" of money is tapped into for capital to grow the business. As a manager or Director of a company, you are tasked with taking that "profit", and reinvesting it into the company, and then recovering that amount plus some for the next quarter. So yes, if all goes well, the business continues to grow and make money. But if all goes badly, who will step up and pay the difference? In the case of oil, if they lost money, would anyone step up to say "hey, let me pay some of that for you?" Hell no, but if the dollar amount the companies make is to high, people look at them differently, even though thier percentage of profit to revenue may have dropped. I haven't read their financials, but it's definitely possible since they are spending money to develop more resources and replace damaged facilities. In my case, I run a 20% margin of profitability, if we do 10,000 or 1,000,000, that cannot change or I'm not doing my job.
Should they have cut their profit percentage? It's a dangerous game, one of those things you can't go back and undo, once you accept less, then you are always on the hook and can never get back to the profitability your investors demand of you...and you're unemployed.
It's a tough call, I'm glad I don't work for those guys.