European Oil Majors' Profits Top $89bn in Nine Months
Six of Europe's biggest oil companies made $89bn (£67bn) in profit in the first nine months of 2026. That is more than double the amount for the same period last year, according to a report by the campaign group Global Witness.
The analysis covers BP, Eni, Equinor, Repsol, Shell and TotalEnergies. It is based on the quarterly results the companies released this week. Between July and September alone they made $38bn (£28bn). The nine-month total is 102 per cent higher than a year earlier.
Prices and refining margins
The war with Iran began on 28 February with US and Israeli strikes. Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a route for about a fifth of the world's oil and gas, has been disrupted ever since. That has raised the price of crude oil, gas and fuels, and the profits refiners make on them. Refining profits per barrel have nearly quadrupled at Shell and TotalEnergies compared with a year ago.
Brent crude traded at $60 to $70 a barrel before the war and rose above $100 in March. On Friday it reached about $117 (£88), its highest since late April, after a tanker was attacked in the Strait of Hormuz.
What the companies reported
Shell's adjusted earnings for the third quarter nearly doubled to $10.8bn (£8.1bn), its highest since 2022. TotalEnergies' more than doubled to $9.1bn (£6.8bn). BP's underlying profit nearly quadrupled to $8.5bn (£6.4bn) and beat analysts' forecasts, although chief executive Meg O'Neill said BP expects some easing in the fourth quarter.
The windfall has gone mainly to paying down debt and returning cash to shareholders. The companies have not raised spending on new production. Shell's net debt fell to $39.7bn (£29.8bn) in the third quarter from $52.6bn (£39.5bn) in the first, and it cut its 2026 capital spending guidance by $1bn to between $23bn and $25bn. TotalEnergies' debt as a share of its equity fell below 10 per cent. BP's net debt fell to $13.87bn (£10.4bn).
Jonathan Noronha-Gant of Global Witness called the profits "obscene". "It is obscene that polluters are continuing to cash in on the fallout of the war in Iran, making more bumper profits from spiralling oil prices while innocent civilians suffer," he said.
The European Union is examining a bloc-wide windfall tax on oil and gas companies, the EU's tax chief, Wopke Hoekstra, told Reuters earlier this month. Germany, Spain and four other member states have urged it to. Portugal has already imposed a 33 per cent tax on extraordinary profits earned in 2026 by oil and refining companies. The EU introduced a similar levy in 2022, and in the UK North Sea companies pay the Energy Profits Levy.
The oil and gas industry has rejected an EU-wide windfall tax. It says the tax would undermine investment, weaken energy security and slow the low-carbon transition.
There is no end to the war in sight. Iran's ambassador to Pakistan has said Tehran will reopen the strait if Washington ends its blockade of Iranian ports. The US has refused to do so.
Source: The Independent