Eight Energy Companies Booked €7.5 bn in EU Excess Profits Amid Iran Conflict Oil Surge, T&E Finds

Eight energy corporations accumulated €7.5 billion in excess profits within the European Union over a six-month period that coincided with Brent crude prices rising above $100 per barrel following the outbreak of a conflict in Iran in late February, according to a report by Transport & Environment (T&E).

The analysis benchmarks each company’s adjusted net profit during the relevant 2026 quarters against the same periods a year earlier, a methodology intended to eliminate seasonal distortions. In the first quarter — which covered only one month after the escalation — EU-level excess profits reached €1.6 billion. That figure rose to €5.9 billion in the second quarter.

The study is limited to corporations that publish geographic detail sufficient to isolate EU-27 earnings: Shell, BP, and TotalEnergies; Eni, Orlen, and Repsol; and OMV and Moeve. Because oil companies can shift profits between jurisdictions, T&E relied on country-by-country disclosures to estimate each group’s profit share attributable to the EU-27 market.

The organization contends that a well-designed permanent windfall-profit tax could fiscally capture gains of this kind at the point where they are generated inside the EU market.

Source: CleanTechnica