"They’re making far too much money." Donald Trump launched a scathing attack on the major US oil companies, ExxonMobil and Chevron, on Monday 3 August. The reason: on Friday 31 July, the two firms announced a surge in their profits. “By taking advantage of shortages, they’re making too much money,” the US president told the press from the White House, insisting that he was “a staunch defender of free enterprise”.
European companies in the sector are not to be outdone. On Thursday 30 July, the British giant Shell reported that its profit had tripled in the second quarter of 2026, reaching $10.8 billion, compared with $3.6 billion a year earlier, the company said in a press release. As for the French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies, it announced on Thursday 23 July that its net profit for the second quarter of 2026 had doubled compared with the previous year, reaching $6 billion – or €4.7 billion – compared with €2.36 billion in the same period in 2025.
These astronomical figures can largely be attributed to a single phenomenon: the surge in oil prices, fuelled by the conflict in the Middle East. The war, launched in late February by the United States and Israel against Iran, is causing major disruption to the oil markets. Tehran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz – the main transit route for around a fifth of the world’s oil and gas consumption – the resumption of hostilities in July, and attacks by Iran’s allies, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, on Saudi ships in the Red Sea, are all factors that are benefiting oil companies.
The mechanism is simple: major oil companies sell their output based on oil prices set on international markets, such as the North Sea Brent benchmark. Prices are driven in particular by the balance of global supply and demand, but also by geopolitical tensions, such as those in the Middle East. When the price per barrel rises sharply, the production operations of the major oil companies see their revenues increase. Conversely, their production costs do not rise in the same proportion.
"The cost of producing a barrel does not necessarily change just because the price of oil rises," Sylvain Bersinger, an economist and founder of the consultancy Bersingéco, explains to franceinfo. "For example, TotalEnergies has wells in the United States and other parts of the world: the cost of extraction remains relatively stable. But if the global price of oil rises, this translates into an additional margin for the company,” he adds. The economist points out that this reasoning applies to production activities. Major oil companies are also active in refining and distribution, where a rise in the price of crude oil can also drive up supply costs if it is not passed on to retail prices.
"If a company produces a barrel at a cost of $50 and the market price rises to $120, the margin automatically increases," explains Sylvain Bersinger, an economist, to franceinfo.
In other words, a rise in the price per barrel does not mean that companies are producing more. Above all, they are making more money on every barrel sold. This mechanism explains why profits can rise faster than the price of oil. “It all depends on the starting point,” explains Sylvain Bersinger. A rise of a few dozen dollars per barrel can significantly increase oil companies’ margins when their production costs remain stable. However, not all companies benefit from this situation in exactly the same way. “It depends on their geographical presence and the location of their wells,” the economist points out. The major oil companies, such as Shell, TotalEnergies and BP, generally have fields spread across several regions of the world, which limits their exposure to a single production area, unlike QatarEnergy.
This situation is not unprecedented; it is similar to the oil crises of the 1970s. Following the first oil crisis in 1973, triggered by the Yom Kippur War, several Arab oil-producing countries imposed an oil embargo. During the second oil crisis in 1979, linked to the Iranian Revolution, oil prices rose sharply, leading to an increase in revenues for oil and gas companies.
More recently, the surge in energy prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 also led to a sharp rise in the major oil companies’ profits. TotalEnergies went on to post a record net profit of $19.5 billion in 2022, sparking criticism from NGOs and politicians, with some denouncing “war profits” as in April 2026. The French oil and gas giant had posted a profit of $5.8 billion (€4.96 billion), representing a 51 per cent year-on-year increase, drawing the ire of Greenpeace France.
The organisation condemned the “cynical approach” of the oil giants, accusing them of turning human tragedies into financial opportunities, whilst households are paying through the nose at the petrol pump. For Sylvain Bersinger, the term is justifiable insofar as these companies are profiting from a situation created by a conflict, but it needs to be qualified: “They did not start the war. They are taking advantage of circumstances they did not cause.”
An article written by franceinfo (France Télévisions), initially published on 5 August 2026, 05:58 (CEST)