{"id":7285,"date":"2026-08-01T15:08:51","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T15:08:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bestusamoverss.com\/?p=7285"},"modified":"2026-08-01T15:08:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T15:08:51","slug":"oil-companies-report-sky-high-profits-thanks-to-wartime-crude-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestusamoverss.com\/?p=7285","title":{"rendered":"Oil companies report sky-high profits thanks to wartime crude prices"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Up First<\/p>

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Chevron just announced its highest quarterly earnings ever. Shell clocked its second-highest quarterly profits. And while ExxonMobil’s profits came in beneath what Wall Street analysts had expected, it still managed to double its earnings compared with this time last year.<\/p>

Read more Why did OpenAI\u2019s and Anthropic\u2019s AI models hack other companies?<\/a><\/p>

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\"A<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n
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Climate <\/h3>\n

Oil companies are making billions. In the U.S., calls to tax their windfall are growing<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n

Combined, the three companies raked in, on average, some $404 million in profits for the last three months.<\/p>

It’s a bonanza for those companies (and for their executives). And it’s raising eyebrows and ire among some European lawmakers and Democrats in the U.S. Congress, who are calling for windfall taxes on those companies.<\/p>

Conflict has raised global crude prices and refining margins\u00a0<\/h3>

The war with Iran has effectively shuttered the Strait of Hormuz, choking off a crucial waterway for crude oil exports. (On Thursday, only five ships were confirmed to have transited the strait, according to the trade intelligence group Kpler.) Some oil from the Persian Gulf is reaching the market through other routes, although new threats are putting pressure on some of those alternatives.<\/p>\n

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\"William<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n
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Business <\/h3>\n

Gas prices are swinging. How to budget for volatility<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n
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\"Drivers<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n
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Business <\/h3>\n

Here’s how we’re coping with high gas prices, according to Costco and Walmart<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n

The conflict in the Middle East has also blocked exports of refined fuels, like gasoline, jet fuel and diesel. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s attacks on Russia’s oil-refining infrastructure have worsened the world’s shortage of those fuels.<\/p>

The world’s oil consumers have felt the result: higher prices for fuel and, in turn, higher prices for everything else.<\/p>

The world’s oil producers have felt it too \u2014 in higher margins for the crude oil and refined fuels that they sell.<\/p>

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\"Against<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n
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Business <\/h3>\n

Gas prices keep rising, but do big oil companies plan to drill more? Not so far<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n

Exxon clocked $14.5 billion in profits this quarter; Chevron, $12.1 billion; and Shell $9.8 billion.<\/p>

Those profits came even though Exxon and Shell, in particular, suffered substantial disruption to their operations in the Middle East, which have been directly affected by the war.<\/p>

Higher crude prices and refining margins were enough to more than offset the blow.<\/p>

Windfall taxes\u00a0<\/h3>

In the U.S., Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., has proposed a windfall tax on oil profits; several countries in Europe are also calling for such a tax. (The United Kingdom already has one in place.) Such a tax is designed to harvest “excess” profits that a company rakes in because of outside forces, not because of innovation or outperformance, and it often redirects that money toward the consumers who are having to pay elevated prices for energy.<\/p>

Read more Staff Sgt. Rampersad, 28, who always knew she wanted to serve, is laid to rest<\/a><\/p>\n\n

The European Union imposed a windfall tax on oil profits after prices spiked in 2022 following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>

In an earnings call on Friday, ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods told analysts that windfall taxes are a “misguided policy” that penalizes businesses that attempt to be successful despite the oil industry’s volatile booms and busts.<\/p>

“We canceled investments that we had planned for Europe based on the last time they passed a windfall profits tax,” he said. “And in fact we’re suing because we don’t think that’s a legal taking for the industry.”<\/p>

Paying down debt and eyeing long-term growth<\/h3>

Executives don’t know exactly how long oil will remain scarce and profits will be high. “I can’t predict when things in the Strait [of Hormuz] will settle down and we’ll start to see those flows again,” Chevron CEO Mike Wirth told analysts on the company’s earnings call Friday.<\/p>

But they don’t expect this money train to last forever. Woods, of Exxon, told analysts repeatedly that oil from the Middle East is simply too important to the global economy for the current situation to persist.<\/p>

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\"Hold<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n
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Energy <\/h3>\n

Hold That Drill: Why Wall Street Wants Energy Companies To Pump Less Oil, Not More<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n

“I think, ultimately, there’s a solution that the world will arrive at,” he said. “I couldn’t tell you exactly when or what it’s going to look like, but those resources are just too critical to the overall economic health of the world for them to stay offline.”<\/p>

That’s one reason \u2014 among others \u2014 that companies aren’t racing to start a bunch of new expensive drilling projects to meet the world’s current oil appetite. They expect the imbalance to be temporary.<\/p>

Instead of pouring this cash into new production \u2014 or spitting it out to shareholders in fatter-than-expected dividends and stock buybacks \u2014 so far, the big oil companies seem more focused on paying down debt and strengthening their own financial situations.<\/p>\n

And instead of targeting short-term drilling projects, they’re talking about long-term, disciplined growth in new oil fields over decades.<\/p>

Read more Over 81,000 U.S. soldiers are missing from past wars. One may soon be identified<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chevron reported its highest quarterly earnings ever. Shell had its second-biggest quarter, and ExxonMobil doubled its earnings compared with the same time last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1467,294,1245,747,710,100],"class_list":["post-7285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","tag-energy-prices","tag-gasoline","tag-oil-companies","tag-oil-industry","tag-oil-prices","tag-u-s-war-in-iran"],"yoast_head":"\nOil companies report sky-high profits thanks to wartime crude prices - Best USA Movers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bestusamoverss.com\/?p=7285\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Oil companies report sky-high profits thanks to wartime crude prices - Best USA Movers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Chevron reported its highest quarterly earnings ever. 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