President Trump on Monday accused ExxonMobil and Chevron of "making too much money" from the oil-price surge caused by the U.S. war with Iran, as BP reported its highest quarterly profit since 2022 and Saudi Aramco posted a 33 percent jump in earnings.
Trump singled out the two U.S. majors — which together booked more than $26 billion in second-quarter profits last week — while signing an executive order in the Oval Office. He said the companies "ought to give some of that back to the public, and they better cut the retail price, the consumer price." ExxonMobil declined to comment; Chevron did not immediately respond.
The pressure campaign lands less than 100 days before November's midterm elections. The U.S. average price of regular gasoline stood at $4.11 a gallon Monday, according to the AAA motoring group, up from about $3.82 a month earlier and roughly $3.15 a year ago, before the strikes on Iran that the administration launched with Israel at the end of February. About half of Americans told a recent CBS News poll that elevated fuel costs are causing them financial difficulties, and roughly eight in 10 said the White House is not focused enough on lowering consumer prices.
The numbers
Chevron's second-quarter net income rose almost fivefold to $12.2 billion from $2.5 billion a year earlier, the company's highest quarterly profit on record. ExxonMobil earned $14.5 billion, double the $7.1 billion it reported in the second quarter of 2025 and its biggest quarter since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Both companies have been running their refineries close to maximum capacity to help make up for lost Middle East refining volumes.
BP said Tuesday its April-to-June profit reached $5.73 billion, more than double the $2.35 billion it earned in the same period last year and the highest since 2022. The company said Brent crude averaged $103.85 a barrel in the quarter, up from $67.88 a year earlier. Shell, which reported last week, also doubled its quarterly profit.
Saudi Aramco, the world's biggest crude exporter, said its second-quarter profit rose 33 percent from a year earlier as higher prices and strong refining margins offset lower export volumes. Aramco captured an additional premium of nearly $11 a barrel by boosting shipments of higher-margin refined products such as diesel and jet fuel, and maintained its base dividend at $21.9 billion. Almost 98 percent of that payout goes to the Saudi government, which relies on oil for about 55 percent of state revenue.
What Trump said
Trump has been escalating his warnings to the industry for weeks. He ordered the Justice Department in late June to investigate potential price gouging in the retail energy sector, and in a Sunday interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo he took direct aim at Chevron chief executive Mike Wirth. In a follow-up Truth Social post cited by CBS News, Trump wrote that "without the genius, foresight, strength, and stability, of the TRUMP Administration, the Oil Industry, and our Country itself, would be DEAD!"
Trump acknowledged the awkward posture of a Republican berating oil producers over profits: "I don't like it, and I should be the last one to say because I'm a big free enterprise guy." He predicted that when the fight with Iran ends, prices at the pump will "drop through the floor."
The industry's answer
BP chief executive Meg O'Neill used the earnings call to accelerate the company's retreat from clean energy. She confirmed the sale of BP's U.S. renewable natural-gas unit Archaea and reiterated last week's decision to put its 60-year-old North Sea operations on the block, saying she would prioritize "value, not sentiment or history" over legacy holdings. Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, called the divestments a hedge against a return to lower prices. "O'Neill will be aware she cannot rely on oil and gas prices remaining this high indefinitely," Mould said.
Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser said the Saudi company had kept crude flowing through its East-West pipeline and Red Sea terminals despite disruption to the Strait of Hormuz and, more recently, the Bab el-Mandeb. Tankers loading on the Red Sea are now sailing through the Suez Canal and around Africa, a detour that adds nearly 25 days to shipments to Asia. Aramco is studying an expansion of the East-West pipeline and is sticking with $50 billion to $55 billion in annual capital spending, Nasser said.
The counterpoint
Environmental and anti-poverty groups pressed the same line as the president, accusing the majors of profiteering. Simon Francis of Britain's End Fuel Poverty Coalition said oil firms "have banked more billions from a crisis that has created real hardship for millions of households" and called for windfall-tax proceeds to clear consumer energy debt. Trump's own criticism echoed lines used by former President Joe Biden during the 2022 inflation spike. But U.S. oil producers do not set retail gasoline prices: crude accounts for about 51 percent of the pump price, refining for 20 percent and marketing and distribution for another 11 percent, according to the Energy Information Administration. Trump's Chevron target has also credited its Venezuela imports with helping curb U.S. gas prices.
Nasser said flows through Hormuz remain at roughly one-tenth of prewar levels. If the waterway reopens, he said, Aramco could restore production to prewar levels within three days — though rebuilding depleted global oil inventories would take about 18 months.