Introduction: Oil profits spike as Middle East war fuels energy prices
Profits are surging at oil companies on the back of the spike in energy prices triggered by the war in the Middle East. BP is the latest to reveal its windfall earnings today: its second-quarter profit more than doubled in the second quarter of this year to $5.73bn compared with the same period a year argo, beating analyst expectations.
Meanwhile Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil exporter, reported a 44% increase in net profit, rising to $32.69bn in the three months ended 30 June, compared with $22.67bn a year earlier.
The spike in profits across the industry is starting to attract criticism across the political spectrum – last night president Donald Trump openly criticised US oil giants ExxonMobil and Chevron, saying they had made “too much money” on rising crude oil prices.
They’re making too much money based on a shortage. I don’t like it.
He told reporters at the White House:
Chevron, too much money. ExxonMobil, too much money,. They’re going to give some of that back to the public and they better cut the retail price, the consumer price.
It comes after both companies reported windfall profits in their second quarters last week. Chevron’s earnings surged nearly 400% to $12bn compared with $2.5bn in the same period last year. Exxon’s profits more than doubled to $14.5bn compared with $7.1bn last year.
The oil price is rising again this morning, with the international benchmark Brent crude now up 1.3% to $85.08 a barrel. Fuel prices in the US are much cheaper than prices we see here in the UK – but gasoline prices averaged $4.10 per gallon in the US on Monday, nearly 40% higher compared with the $2.98 per gallon before the war with Iran started, according to the AAA.
The agenda
7am BST: Flutter interim results, BP Q2, HSBC Q2, Metro Bank Q2
10am BST: Eurozone unemployment data
9pm BST: SpaceX Q2 first earnings report since its record-breaking IPO
