Activists call surging oil and gas profits ‘horrifying’ as energy giants post profits twice as high as 2025
· Fortune
If drivers saddled with pricey fees at the pump have been one of the biggest economic losers of the war in the Middle East, the companies selling that gasoline have emerged as the conflict’s clear winner.
In mid-March, when the war was only two weeks old, market capitalization at the world’s six largest energy firms had surged a combined $130 billion, the Guardian calculated. But it took some companies reporting first quarter earnings this past week to nail down just how much hard cash the conflict has generated for oil giants.
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On Tuesday, BP, one of the U.K.’s largest energy companies, reported $3.2 billion in profits over the first three months of the year, more than double the $1.38 billion in profits the company announced over the same period last year. With the Strait of Hormuz still impassable and one-fifth of the world’s petroleum still locked up in the Persian Gulf, oil and gas giants have been reaping rewards from the supply crunch, sparking rebukes and criticisms from environmental and advocacy groups in the process.
“It is horrifying to see BP’s profits grow as millions suffer the fallout from the U.S.-Israel war on Iran,” Patrick Galey, head of investigations at campaigning outfit Global Witness, said in a statement responding to the company’s results.
BP did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
A bumper 2026 so far
BP was one of the first oil and gas companies to announce quarterly results, but other energy firms are in line to report similar numbers. Shell, BP’s main domestic competitor that will release results May 7, forecasted earlier this month a profitable quarter for its oil business. TotalEnergies, a French company, will report results Wednesday, but has already signaled higher-than-expected profits.
In all cases, companies are reporting a surge in oil trading activity, tempered somewhat by the deteriorating outlook for natural gas production, stemming from Iranian air strikes severely damaging crucial gas production sites in the Gulf.
But the bounce in oil prices due to the war has made up for that uncertainty in the short term. A barrel of oil was priced at $73 before the war began, then quickly surged beyond $100 in the conflict’s early days. Brent crude, an international oil pricing benchmark, currently sits at around $110 a barrel.
A troubled natural gas business and fluctuating oil prices are unlikely to do much to cloud energy supermajors’ fortunes this year. Higher oil prices meant that for the same amount of product, the world’s top 100 oil and gas companies earned an extra $30 million every hour during the first month of the war, according to an analysis earlier this month by the Guardian and Rystad Energy, a consultancy. If oil prices hover around $100 a barrel for the foreseeable future, profits this year could add up to $264 billion, the analysis found.
Despite attempts to negotiate the Strait of Hormuz’s reopening during an ongoing ceasefire, the narrow waterway remains shut to virtually all ship traffic. Even once it reopens, production and logistical operations will take months or possibly years to return to pre-war levels, the watchdog International Energy Agency warned earlier this month, meaning the effects of the closure on oil prices and company profits are likely already baked in.
An analysis published Sunday by the nonprofit Oxfam International found the six biggest fossil fuel companies—Chevron, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, Exxon, and TotalEnergies—are earning nearly $3,000 a second in 2026, around $37 million a day more than their earnings last year. Oxfam projected the six companies’ total profit for the year to be $94 billion.
Activists and drivers protest
The surging earnings mirror the skyrocketing pocketbook expenses of drivers around the world. In Europe, drivers paid an extra €150 million a day ($175 million) in the opening weeks of the war, adding up over the year to an extra €220 ($257) in gasoline costs per driver, according to a report last month by Transport & Environment, a Belgium-based think tank. In the U.S., the average regular gasoline price sits at $4.18 per gallon, according to AAA, the highest level since the start of the war, and the most expensive gas has been since April 2022.
Opinions in the U.S. about the war have largely been split along partisan lines, although most polls suggest a majority of Americans disapprove of the Trump administration’s handling of the conflict, and gas prices have been one of the public’s most prominent headaches. Around seven in 10 Americans are very or extremely concerned about the war’s impact on fuel prices, according to a Pew poll published earlier this month, with only 9% saying rising gasoline costs are not a major concern.
In addition to condemnations of oil and gas companies, the war has reignited calls for more hardline windfall taxes on fossil fuel firms. In the U.K., a windfall tax implemented in 2022 and extended last year charges energy companies an extra 38% on top of regular levies for oil and gas production. Several European nations, including Spain, Italy, and Portugal, are also petitioning the EU to revive a windfall tax system last imposed in 2022 during the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In the U.S., Democrat lawmakers have jumped on public discontent to push for a windfall tax on domestic oil and gas firms. The move has been supported by more than 70 environmental and advocacy groups nationwide, who submitted a public letter last month calling for more levies on energy giants.
“Revenue from a windfall profits tax should be returned directly to struggling American households to help offset rising costs,” the letter said. “A windfall profits tax would ensure that extraordinary profits generated off the backs of U.S. families during periods of crisis are returned back to the public rather than captured entirely by oil and gas corporations.”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com