27/04/2026 by Thomas Clark
A recent report has revealed that the three biggest oil companies in Europe have made billions of dollars via trading during the energy supply crunch sparked by the Iran war.
The influx of revenues is assisting in offsetting the financial impact of the conflict on their oil production operations. While the war has caused damage to gas and oil infrastructure, disrupted the passage of oil tankers and kept a large portion of Gulf oil production from the market, the ensuing energy price volatility has also created fresh opportunities for oil company trade desks. Together, traders at UK majors Shell and BP, and France’s TotalEnergies (owner of Total Lubricants) made around $2.5 billion in the first quarter.
For decades, European majors have worked to build dedicated trading desks, staffed by hundreds of people who sell and buy crude oil, gas and fuel to benefit from price gaps across time periods and regions. Companies with extensive trading operations can effectively transform volatility into tangible earnings.
This is a model that has proved lucrative for the three “Big Oil” companies in Europe during the crisis in Iran, which has generated the largest worldwide oil disruption to date.
The strategy’s success has been clearly represented on the stock market, with shares in TotalEnergies, BP and Shell all showing significant gains since the beginning of the conflict.
Commenting on its oil trading, BP described its first quarter performance as “exceptional”. Shell called its own progress “strong” while TotalEnergies expected the substantial boost in earnings.
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