BP posted its highest quarterly profit since 2022, with underlying profit up 144% year over year to $5.7 billion as the Iran conflict pushed oil and gas prices higher. The results landed a day after Donald Trump said Exxon Mobil and Chevron were making too much money from the war, and BP pressed ahead with asset sales including its Archaea biogas unit.
BP's underlying profit for the second quarter rose 144% year over year to $5.7 billion, comfortably beating analysts' forecasts and marking the oil major's best quarter since 2022. The jump came as fighting between the United States and Iran disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a choke point that typically handles about a fifth of the world's oil and gas.
Profit beats forecasts across the board
The result towered over the $2.35 billion BP earned a year earlier and the $3.2 billion it posted in the first quarter of 2026. It also came in ahead of analysts' estimates of $5.1 billion. BP also lifted its dividend for the quarter, with the payout rising 4% to 8.66 cents per share. Net debt fell to $22.25 billion from $25.3 billion at the end of March. Operating cash flow came in at $10.9 billion. Shares of BP have surged more than 27% year-to-date.
Trump takes aim at Big Oil
The earnings arrived a day after Trump told reporters that U.S. oil majors were making too much money off a shortage and that he did not like it, after separately criticizing Exxon Mobil and Chevron over their own results. BP chief executive Meg O'Neill responded that the company is focused on reliability across its production and refining assets, and pointed to the North Sea. O'Neill told CNBC: "the first barrel we consume should be coming from the North Sea", referencing a conversation with new UK prime minister Andy Burnham.
Oil prices climb further
Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 1.3% to $85.08 a barrel on Tuesday. U.S. pump prices, according to AAA, averaged $4.10 a gallon on Monday, nearly 40% higher than the $2.98 seen before the Iran war began.
BP presses ahead with divestments
BP said Tuesday it had launched the process to market Archaea Energy, the U.S. biogas business it bought for $4.1 billion in 2022, for a potential sale. Last week, BP announced the sale of its UK North Sea business, and O'Neill said several parties had already made unsolicited approaches for those assets. On Monday, BP also completed the sale of its Gelsenkirchen refinery to Klesch Group, a deal expected to lower its operating expenditure by around $1 billion.
The divestments extend BP's pivot back toward its core oil-and-gas business, after it scrapped its renewables expansion strategy in early 2025.
Sources: FT, CNBC, The Guardian
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