American producers and refiners are getting richer, but President Donald Trump may pay the price
The US’ largest oil companies almost tripled their profits during the US-Israeli war on Iran, the New York Times has reported, at a time when soaring energy costs threaten to wipe out US President Donald Trump’s Republican Party in the upcoming midterm elections.
The American oil giants – including Chevron, Exxon Mobil, and Valero – earned $130 billion in profits between April and September, according to six months worth of financial results covering more than 50 companies, combined by the New York Times. In the same period last year, these companies made less than $47 billion.
This windfall is an almost direct mirror of the extra $147 billion Americans spent on gasoline and diesel since American and Israeli warplanes began striking Iran on February 28.
With the Strait of Hormuz closed to shipping for almost all of the last six months, and Yemen’s Houthis attacking Saudi extraction sites and shipping in the Red Sea, American producers have reaped the benefit of high oil prices, with Chevron and Exxon Mobil recording higher profits than at any point since the Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022.
Exxon’s third-quarter profit more than doubled this year, while Chevron’s almost tripled.
American refiners have taken advantage of the widespread destruction of refining sites in the Gulf region, and the threat of Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian refineries, leveraging their safe location inside the US. Valero and Phillips 66 both posted all-time record third-quarter profits this year.
Europe’s oil giants have posted similar results, with Shell, TotalEnergies, and Repsol all more than doubling their earnings last quarter over the same timeframe in 2025, as Europeans grapple with record energy bills. Some European finance ministers have demanded that the EU impose windfall taxes on these companies in response.
At $4.29 per gallon as of Monday, US gasoline prices are now higher than they were at any point during former President Joe Biden’s four years in office, with the exception of the first three months after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict. Trump has described the elevated prices as a “small price to pay for” preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, but voters aren’t convinced.
This week, 72% of respondents told a Gallup poll that gasoline prices are “extremely” important in how they plan to vote in next week’s midterm elections. Most polling organizations show the Republican Party on track to lose one or both houses of Congress next week, with the GOP trailing the Democrats by between eight and nine points nationwide.
Trump has tried to alleviate some of this damage by lifting sanctions on Russian diesel, and at least three diesel tankers have left Russian ports en route to the US. Trump has also pressed Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky to cease attacks on Russian refineries, but Zelensky has apparently ignored these requests.
