Nine oil majors post back-to-back quarters with more than $95 billion in profits

The world's nine largest listed oil companies are on track to top $95 billion in combined profits during the third quarter of 2026, after earning $96 billion in the second, according to an analysis by investment broker AJ Bell carried by The Guardian on November 2.

The figure comes down to two factors: the rise in crude prices after the conflict between the United States and Israel with Iran, which pushed Brent above $126 a barrel, and refining margins, which offset the disruption to shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. Saudi Aramco leads the table, with estimated quarterly net profit of close to $30 billion, 7% more than a year earlier. BP has already reported $8.46 billion, its best result since 2008, according to the same analysis. For the Mexican market, which buys gasoline and diesel abroad, US Gulf Coast margins are the pricing reference, so a high margin feeds straight into the import bill.

The five largest Western oil companies accumulated $118.86 billion in profits between January and September, against $59.273 billion in the same period of 2025, Expansión reported: ExxonMobil $34.121 billion, Shell $28.573 billion, Chevron $24.206 billion, TotalEnergies $19.511 billion and BP $12.449 billion. In the quarter alone, those five companies together posted $56.3 billion in adjusted net profit, according to the Bloomberg report published by the Los Angeles Times, which attributes the result to roughly 10% of global refining capacity going offline. ExxonMobil has raised its Gulf Coast distillate output by 40% since 2019, according to the same report. In Latin America, Chevron expects to produce 300,000 barrels a day in Venezuela by the end of 2026, 20% more than a year earlier.

The next data points to watch are Aramco's full results and the trajectory of strategic and commercial inventories, the buffer that the report identifies as increasingly limited, with price volatility expected to rise toward the fourth quarter.

This article was drafted with the assistance of artificial intelligence from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.