Exxon and Chevron Just Made a Killing Off the War – and Your Gas Bill

Reuters, the New York Times, the Guardian, and CNN contributed to this report.

Big Oil is having a moment. ExxonMobil and Chevron both beat analyst expectations Friday, and the reason is simple: refining is printing money right now. The wars in Iran and Ukraine have scrambled global energy markets, knocked out fuel-making capacity, and sent gasoline and diesel prices soaring. For the oil majors, that’s a windfall.

Exxon earned $4.23 per share on an adjusted basis, easily topping the $4.12 analysts expected. Chevron posted $5.28 in adjusted per-share profit. Shares of both companies rose about 2% in Friday trading. But the headline number tells a bigger story. Exxon is now making more money from refining than from its exploration and drilling operations for the first time in at least six years. Chevron’s downstream earnings hit their highest point over the same stretch. That’s a dramatic reversal for a business segment that usually plays second fiddle to drilling.

“It’s important to acknowledge that these higher fuel prices put real pressure on families and businesses,” Exxon CFO Neil Hansen said in an interview. “The most meaningful response… that we can offer as a company is to pull every lever that’s available to us to increase supply.”

Exxon is investing in its refineries, including the Baytown complex in Texas, to boost fuel production. Distillate output in the US will grow by another 100,000 barrels per day through those investments, the company said, without giving a timeline. CEO Darren Woods told analysts the company is looking for more ways to expand existing refining facilities.

Chevron has similar plans. CFO Eimear Bonner told Reuters the company could grow capacity by 7% at its Pascagoula refinery in Mississippi by the end of the decade. Both companies are using the cash gusher to pay down debt rather than showering shareholders with bigger dividends or buybacks. Exxon reduced debt by $8 billion in the third quarter. Chevron has cut net debt by nearly $14 billion since the end of 2025.

“We think in decades, not quarters,” Bonner said. “We need that strong balance sheet through high prices and low prices.”

Exxon did raise its quarterly dividend by 4 cents and said it would repurchase $20 billion in shares in 2027, same as the prior two years.

BP got in on the action too. The UK oil producer posted record quarterly net profit on Friday and said it would use the money to slash liabilities, including an early repayment of its outstanding $5 billion post-tax bill for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. Shell, TotalEnergies, and BP all topped third-quarter profit estimates this week. The refining surge is lifting the entire sector.

For consumers, the picture is less rosy. Gas prices averaged $4.20 a gallon, nearly $1.20 higher than a year ago, according to AAA. Diesel is about $6.32 a gallon, up 71% since last year. US households have paid $1,184 more on average since the war started, thanks to pricier gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel, according to Moody’s Analytics. That’s a political headache ahead of Tuesday’s midterms. Thirty-six percent of voters say the rising cost of living is the single most important issue this election, according to a recent Harris poll for the Guardian.

President Trump, for his part, told a Georgia crowd last week that higher gas prices have been a blessing for America.

“Our country is making hundreds of billions of dollars because of what’s happened in the Middle East,” he said. “We’re making a frickin’ fortune.”

The White House defended the comments, saying Trump was pointing to the US position as the world’s top oil producer and exporter. Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee noted that Trump’s own oil and gas holdings grew by as much as $35.8 million in the first half of the year, with 94% of his 2026 oil and gas purchases occurring after the war began. The White House said there’s no conflict of interest and that investment decisions are made by independent managers.

Exxon and Chevron shares are up 52% so far this year. The war has been very good to Big Oil.