Rubbish Check
NPR Business · 31 July 2026
source“Oil companies report sky-high profits thanks to wartime crude prices”
R2/ 10
Lightly altered
Rubbish Rating — 1 = base fact, 10 = pure rubbish
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In short
Rubbish Talk rates NPR's claim that oil majors posted "sky-high profits thanks to wartime crude prices" a 2/10 because Chevron's $12.1 billion quarter was its largest ever, Shell's was its second-highest, and Exxon doubled year-on-year profit, all directly tied by the companies themselves to Iran-war disruption of crude and refined-fuel flows.
The Verdict
Base fact, lightly rounded. The causal claim and the scale of profit are both accurate and confirmed by the companies' own earnings calls; the only nitpick is that "sky-high" is doing some editorial lifting for Exxon, whose result actually missed Wall Street's forecast even as it doubled year-on-year.
What actually happened
Chevron, Shell and ExxonMobil all reported outsized second-quarter 2026 profits as the Iran war choked the Strait of Hormuz and disrupted refined-fuel exports, while Ukrainian strikes hit Russian refining capacity. The three companies combined earned roughly $404 million a day over the quarter, and European lawmakers and some US Democrats are now pushing windfall taxes in response.
Key facts
- Chevron: $12.1 billion in Q2 profit, its highest quarterly profit ever; independent reporting corroborates this as either a record or "highest in at least six years," with upstream earnings up roughly 200% year-on-year on higher Brent prices.
- Shell: $9.8-$10.8 billion (figures vary slightly by source), its second-highest quarterly profit, and its most profitable quarter since the 2022 Russia-driven price spike per outside reporting.
- Exxon: $14.5 billion in profit, doubling last year's figure, though this came in below Wall Street's expectations, according to the article itself.
- Combined average of about $404 million in daily profit across the three companies for the quarter, per the article.
- Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse has proposed a US windfall tax; the EU already imposed one in 2022 and the UK has one in place.
What to watch for
- Watch whether Exxon's miss-vs-estimate gets buried in follow-up coverage that focuses only on the year-on-year doubling.
- Watch for whether windfall-tax proposals gain traction now that record profits are again in headlines, and how CEOs like Darren Woods frame resistance to them.
- Watch Strait of Hormuz shipping data for signs the crude-price premium (and these margins) is easing or persisting.
About this scoreThe R-Score is Rubbish Talk's editorial opinion on how far a headline's framing sits from what the underlying facts support. It is a judgement about presentation and emphasis, not an allegation that any outlet has acted dishonestly. Every figure we rely on is linked under Receipts so you can check it yourself.
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