A Windfall From War

BP reported second-quarter net profit of $3.91 billion — more than double the $1.62 billion it posted in the same period last year — as the U.S.-Iran war drove oil and gas prices sharply higher. The announcement, made on August 4, landed with the kind of timing that makes politicians wince. Trump’s remarks about oil companies making too much money landed just hours before BP announced its own profits had doubled over the last quarter, climbing to $5.7 billion.

BP’s underlying replacement cost profit — the company’s preferred measure — more than doubled year on year to $5.7 billion, the highest since 2022 and 12% ahead of City consensus. The company also reported quarterly operating cash flow of $10.9 billion, while net debt dropped to $22.25 billion by quarter’s end. BP raised its quarterly dividend by 4% to 8.66 cents per ordinary share.

Trump Turns on His Own Industry

President Donald Trump lashed out at U.S. oil majors Exxon Mobil and Chevron for making “too much money” off higher fuel prices amid the Iran war, reiterating his demand for lower prices at the pump. After the U.S. super-majors revealed their super-normal profits, Trump said the companies would “give some of that back to the public.” The rebuke was striking coming from a president who spent his first term championing the fossil fuel industry.

U.S. gasoline prices currently average $4.11 a gallon, according to AAA — nearly double the figure Trump suggested consumers should be seeing. The frustration is understandable from a political standpoint. High pump prices are one of the fastest ways to erode public approval, and the numbers from Big Oil are hard to spin. U.S. oil giants collectively raked in more than $26 billion in profits for the three months ending in June.

An Industry-Wide Bonanza

Exxon’s second-quarter profits more than doubled to $14.5 billion compared to a year ago, while Chevron’s earnings soared by nearly 400% to $12 billion compared to $2.5 billion in the same period last year. Shell’s net profit doubled to nearly $10 billion in the three months to June, while Aramco’s net profits rose 44% to $32.69 billion for the quarter ending June 30. The breadth of the windfall — spanning American, British, and Saudi giants — underscores just how thoroughly the Iran conflict has reshaped global energy markets.

The fighting has severely disrupted shipping through the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz, a narrow maritime choke point that typically handles around a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas. Oil prices posted their biggest monthly gain since March in July, with Brent crude rising roughly 20% as the conflict escalated and disruptions spread across key shipping routes. For oil companies, geopolitical chaos has been a financial gift. For everyone else filling up a tank, it’s something else entirely.

BP’s CEO Pushes Back — and Looks Ahead

BP CEO Meg O’Neill said the second-quarter results were underpinned by strong performance across the group and responded to Trump’s criticism directly: “I understand the pressure that the ordinary household feels when they pull into the service station to fill up and see the prices. The reality is we produce a global commodity and the prices for the product we sell hangs off that global commodity price.” The American Petroleum Institute also defended the industry, stating that high prices result from global supply and demand and uncertainty in the Strait of Hormuz rather than individual corporations.

The Trump administration has repeatedly stated it has no current plans to impose an export ban on oil or petroleum products, though some analysts caution that option could resurface if pump prices continue climbing — turning what is currently a war of words into a potential policy showdown between the White House and the industry it once championed. With the Iran conflict showing no signs of quick resolution and oil supermajors posting their best numbers in years, that tension is only likely to deepen.