Eight oil majors report $90bn in profits over spring quarter
The national average price of gasoline in the United States climbed to $4.06 a gallon on Monday, a level not previously recorded for August, according to data from AAA reported by The Guardian. The figure is $0.05 higher than last week and $1 more than a year ago. In California and Hawaii, state averages reached about $5.50 a gallon.
Energy prices have remained elevated since the US-Israel war with Iran began at the end of February and the Strait of Hormuz — a waterway through which about a fifth of global oil passes — was blocked, The Guardian reported.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, reached $112 a barrel in March, a high not seen since 2022. Prices have since come down closer to $85 a barrel but remain about 30% higher than a year ago.
Gasoline prices had dipped over recent months after the US and Iran reached brief peace deals, but began climbing again as negotiations faltered. On Monday, the two countries missed their 60-day diplomatic deadline to end the war; both sides failed to reach an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program.
President Donald Trump on Monday threatened to bomb Oman — a key strategic partner for the US that has historically served as a backchannel between Washington and Tehran — if it “gets in the way.”
Trump indicated he was not pressing for the war to end without Iran meeting his demands. “I have no time schedule. I’m not in a hurry,” he told Fox News on Monday.
The war has contributed a measurable cost to American household gasoline bills. A July report by the congressional Joint Economic Committee — a bipartisan committee drawing on AAA data — estimated that US consumers paid an excess of $56.4 billion in elevated gasoline prices over the six months of the conflict, roughly $477 more per household.
Overall consumer inflation came down in July, driven in part by cooling energy prices, but consumer prices remain up compared with a year earlier. In a May Harris Poll, half of Americans surveyed said they were struggling with the cost of groceries and gas, and an overwhelming majority said they believed the country was in an affordability crisis.
Meanwhile, eight of the largest oil companies — Aramco, BP, Shell, Equinor, TotalEnergies, Eni, Chevron and ExxonMobil — reported $90bn (£67bn) in combined profits for the period covering March through June, the period The Guardian described as the first full financial quarter since the war began. That equates to roughly $700,000 in profit every minute over the spring quarter, according to The Guardian.