Eight of the world's biggest oil companies amassed combined profits of more than $90bn (£67bn) in just three months, as the Iran conflict sent energy prices soaring and the climate crisis caused deadly heatwaves. This windfall has reignited demands for oil and gas supermajors to pay for environmental damage and fund a rapid transition to renewable energy.
Record Profits in a Single Quarter
Analysis by the Guardian found that the eight listed oil producers – Saudi Aramco, BP, Shell, Equinor, TotalEnergies, Eni, Chevron and ExxonMobil – made almost $93bn (£69bn) in the three months to the end of June. This is the first full financial quarter after the US-Israeli war on Iran triggered a surge in global oil prices to highs above $126 a barrel.
The companies have used the biggest disruption of fossil fuel supplies in the market's history to almost double their combined profits from just under $50bn in the same period last year. Campaigners warn that millions of households are left paying the price in higher bills and climate chaos.
Profit Every Minute
The data suggests these companies made more than $700,000 of profit every minute over the spring quarter. While their market valuations swelled by about $600bn to above $3tn, temperatures built towards a run of deadly heatwaves, all made more likely and more severe by burning fossil fuels.
For the first time, scientific analysis published last September directly linked carbon emissions from the world's biggest fossil fuel firms to fatal spells of hot weather. It found that emissions from any one of the 14 biggest companies were each enough to cause more than 50 heatwaves that would otherwise have been virtually impossible.
Aramco Leads with $33bn Profit
The biggest oil profits in the spring quarter were raked in by Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company, Aramco, which reported a 34% increase in its quarterly net income to more than $33bn, even as its infrastructure was damaged by drone and missile strikes from Iranian and Houthi forces.
Saudi Aramco's fossil fuel production has made it responsible for more carbon emissions than any company in history, according to the database Carbon Majors, followed by Chevron and ExxonMobil, with Shell and BP in the top 10. Saudi Arabia has for decades led successful efforts to block and delay international climate action.
BP's Highest Profits Since Ukraine War
On Tuesday, BP became one of the last big oil companies to publish its results for the April to June period, reporting quarterly profits of $5.73bn – the highest since the first year of Russia's full-scale war on Ukraine and more than double the $2.5bn of the previous three months.
Patrick Galey, the lead on fossil fuels at Global Witness, said: “BP's sky-high profits are a scandalous reminder of who's been cashing in on human misery this year. While wildfires threaten communities across the world, drought bites and energy costs spiral, ordinary families are paying the price for big oil's prioritisation of shareholder wealth over a livable planet.”
He added: “It's time to make oil giants pay up to repair the climate breakdown they're driving. Think how many fire and flood defences we could build, or how many solar panels we could install, if big oil paid their fair share in taxes.”
Rosie Downes, the head of campaigns at Friends of the Earth, said: “While BP banks another round of enormous profits, millions of households are paying the price through sky-high energy bills and a climate crisis accelerating rapidly out of control.”
BP Defends Profits, Cuts Green Spending
BP's new chief executive, Meg O'Neill, defended the company's profits by saying it was “focused on the things we can do to try to help address the situation” such as reliably producing more of the oil products that were in short supply.
The company has been cutting the amount it spends on green energy since it dropped its environmental ambitions in a “fundamental reset” early last year, reducing its annual energy transition budget from $5bn to $1.5bn-$2bn. In recent years BP has spun off its UK offshore windfarms into a joint venture, sold its US onshore wind business, and on Tuesday announced it would sell its $4bn US biogas business, which captures methane from landfill sites and is the largest renewable gas producer in the US.
It is in advanced talks to sell its solar power business, Lightsource, to a consortium backed by Kuwait's sovereign wealth fund, according to the Financial Times. On Friday, BP put its North Sea oil and gas business up for sale after more than 60 years operating it, reigniting calls for the UK government to rule out the development of two controversial North Sea fields in the ageing basin.
Other Oil Giants See Soaring Profits
Shell last week reported its second highest quarterly profits ever as its net income jumped to $9.84bn, despite producing less gas from its Qatar gas plant due to billions of dollars' worth of damage caused by the war. Equinor's profits climbed to $3.2bn in the same period, up from $1.8bn in the spring quarter last year.
In the US, the profits reported by Chevron and ExxonMobil provoked criticism from Donald Trump. The US president accused the pair of “making too much money” from his war on Iran and warned that they would be made to return profits to the public, as he nears the November midterm elections with flagging approval ratings.
Chevron reported net income of $12.2bn for the second quarter, a more than fivefold increase on the same period last year. ExxonMobil reported a profit of $14.5bn, double what it made in the same period a year ago and its highest quarterly profit since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Galey said: “You know big oil is taking us for a ride when one of their biggest allies, Donald Trump, is telling them to rein their profiteering in.”
Climate Chaos Intensifies
The impacts this summer include Europe's worst ever heatwave, another categorised by scientists as “impossible” without human-caused global heating. About 20,000 people are estimated to have died due to the extreme temperatures, including close to 3,000 in the UK in May and June alone.
South Korea and Japan have also experienced record-breaking heat of up to 42.5C, with the Korean weather agency instructing people to “immediately stop all outdoor activities”, while the climate crisis pushed up temperatures across much of Africa in July. Global heating makes every heatwave more intense and more likely, and rising global temperatures kill one person a minute around the world, a report in the Lancet estimated in October.
The UN climate chief, Simon Stiell, said: “Around the world, climate-driven disasters are reaching nightmare proportions. What needs to be done is clear: leave coal, oil and gas behind faster, scale up renewables, and protect people where the impacts are already hitting hardest.”
Drought and Wildfires
Europe's succession of heatwaves has sucked soils dry and led to extreme drought, damaging food supplies from maize to sunflowers to salad. At least 9m tonnes of grain are expected to be lost, with the UK, for example, facing its worst harvest on record.
The arid conditions have also enabled huge wildfires in France, Spain, Portugal and Greece, causing billions of euros of damage. The blazes send toxic air pollution soaring and in the US and Canada the fires from 15-23 July are estimated to have caused about 4,000 deaths within a week of exposure. The climate crisis is making fire weather worse and about 1.5 million people a year have their lives shortened by wildfire smoke.
Extreme Rain and Flooding
In south Asia, the climate crisis is supercharging extreme rainfall – air that is 1C warmer holds 7% more water. More than 40cm of rain fell in 24 hours in Chattogram in Bangladesh in early July, for example, leading to flash flooding. Floods and landslides have taken lives and livelihoods in Pakistan and India. There have also been dozens of fatalities in north-west China, where many thousands of people have been evacuated due to heavy storms.
