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Exxon made US$160 million per day in last quarter as oil prices surged
(CNN) Big Oil is minting money. ExxonMobil and Chevron, the two biggest US oil companies, reported gangbusters profits on Friday driven by the spike in global oil prices unleashed by the US-Iran war.
Exxon raked in US$14.5 billion in profit during the second quarter, more than doubling its year-earlier earnings and its highest haul since 2022 during the onset of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Broken down, Exxon made about US$160 million per day last quarter.
Chevron, the No. 2 US oil company, posted a profit of $12.1 billion, more than quadrupling the US$2.5 billion it made in the same period last year.
“These companies are printing money because oil prices spiked around the world,” said Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates. Global oil prices have surged more than 40% so far this year.
Not only that, but Exxon and Chevron own refineries that are cashing in on the damage done by war.
The US-Iran war has wiped out a chunk of refinery capacity in the Middle East, just as Ukraine’s drone strikes have derailed Russia’s refinery operations.
Lipow estimates the world has lost about 6 million to 7 million barrels of refining capacity per day, making existing refineries even more profitable.
“Exxon and Chevron have refineries that are doing fantastic. We’re at record refining margins for gasoline, jet fuel and diesel,” Lipow said.
Chevron’s downstream business, which includes its refineries, swung from a loss of $817 million a year ago to a profit of US$4.9 billion.
Exxon shares retreated about 2% in premarket trading on Friday as it’s adjusted per-share profit narrowly missed forecasts.
Another major oil company, Shell, revealed Thursday it made nearly US$10 billion last quarter – more than doubling its year-earlier profit. In fact, it was Shell’s second-highest quarterly profit in company history.
Oil, however, is a notoriously boom-to-bust industry. When prices are low, small oil drillers often go bankrupt and even industry leaders lose money. For instance, in 2020 when oil prices briefly went negative as demand crashed during the pandemic, ExxonMobil lost US$22.4 billion.
“Markets were supportive, but our performance reflected the strength of the portfolio and operating model we have built over many years,” Exxon CEO Darren Woods said in a statement on Friday.
Woods added that last quarter was “shaped by disruption, but defined by execution.”
Chevron is responding to high oil prices by ramping up supply. The company reported record US production and said worldwide production jumped 20% year-over-year.
But the current blockbuster profits for Big Oil likely will not sit well with consumers and some politicians. The public is hurting from the same high prices the oil industry is benefiting from.
The Iran war has cost consumers more than US$76 billion in the form of higher gasoline and diesel prices, according to the Brown University’s Climate Solutions Lab.
Even President Donald Trump, a friend of the oil industry, complained last month that oil companies were not dropping gas prices as fast as oil was falling. Trump said he instructed the US Justice Department to “start looking into this,” adding: “Gasoline prices better start going down a lot faster than what I’m seeing.”
Oil companies don’t directly control retail gas prices. And gas prices did fall sharply from their recent peak above $4.50 a gallon. However, they have since rebounded because the US-Iran ceasefire broke down.
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