Profits are climbing sharply at oil firms following the jump in energy costs sparked by the conflict in the Middle East.

BP is the most recent to disclose its strong results today with second-quarter earnings more than doubling to $5.73bn from the same period last year and surpassing analyst forecasts.

At the same time Saudi Aramco the largest oil exporter worldwide posted a 44% rise in net earnings to $32.69bn for the three months ended 30 June up from $22.67bn a year earlier.

The broad increase in industry profits is drawing criticism from across the political range. Last night President Donald Trump openly faulted US oil majors ExxonMobil and Chevron for earning too much money on higher crude prices.

He told reporters at the White House that they are making too much money based on a shortage and he does not like it.

The remarks followed windfall results from both firms last week. Chevron earnings rose nearly 400% to $12bn from $2.5bn a year earlier while Exxon profits more than doubled to $14.5bn from $7.1bn.

Trump added that Chevron and ExxonMobil have made too much money and they are going to give some of that back to the public and they better cut the retail price the consumer price.

The oil price is climbing again this morning with the international benchmark Brent crude rising 1.3% to $85.08 a barrel. Fuel prices in the US remain lower than those in the UK yet gasoline averaged $4.10 per gallon on Monday nearly 40% above the $2.98 level before the conflict with Iran began according to the AAA.

The agenda

7am BST: Flutter interim results BP Q2 HSBC Q2 Metro Bank Q2
10am BST: Eurozone unemployment data
9pm BST: SpaceX Q2 first earnings report since its record-breaking IPO

Segro agrees to £14bn takeover by Prologis

On the corporate side FTSE 100 landlord Segro has agreed to a £14bn takeover by the US property group Prologis after weeks of talks.

The transaction consists of a share offer with a partial cash alternative and values each Segro share at 1 031.7p.

Segro investors will receive 0.0920 new Prologis shares or if they choose the partial cash option 258p per Segro share and 0.0690 new Prologis shares.

The boards described it as a 39% premium to Segro share price on 23 June the day before Prologis first offer and a 14.4% premium to the last reported valuation at the end of June.

Prologis said it will seek a secondary London listing of its shares.

It is the latest in a series of London-listed firms agreeing to takeovers by overseas buyers. Mitie Intertek easyJet Beazley and Schroders have all completed such deals this year.

European stock markets rise on back of corporate earnings

European stock markets opened higher this morning on a wave of corporate earnings reports.

The Stoxx Europe 600 tracking the largest companies on the continent rose 0.62% led by gains in the industrial sector. The German Dax climbed 0.84% while the French Cac 40 advanced 0.54%.

The UK blue-chip FTSE 100 opened 0.52% higher led by its basic materials and industrial sectors. Shares in HSBC its largest constituent by market value slipped 0.2% while BP shares rose 1.4%.

The campaign group Positive Money has calculated that a windfall tax on bank profits could raise £19bn this year from Britain four biggest banks.

It found that HSBC Barclays Lloyds Bank and NatWest together made £29.2bn in profit in the first six months of the year a 21% increase from the same period in 2025.

Positive Money estimates that a windfall tax on banks UK profits at a rate of 38% in line with the UK government windfall tax on oil and gas companies would raise £19bn from the big four banks alone if announced in this year autumn Budget.

That sum would cover the cost of Andy Burnham VAT cut from electricity bills (£850m) the £2 cap on bus fares (£500m) and the business rates cut for pubs clubs and music venues (£100m) more than 13 times over it said.

Sara Hall co-executive director at Positive Money said interest rate rises have landed us in a lose-lose situation not only have they proven ineffective at taming inflation coming from overseas pressures they have also handed windfall profits to banks directly at the public expense.

Previous governments have allowed the powerful banking lobby to persuade them against taxing these record-breaking profits in recent years despite overwhelming public support for the policy.

We are calling on Andy Burnham to break with his predecessors by resisting the demands of City lobbyists and reclaiming these lost billions with a windfall tax on bank profits the proceeds of which could be used to fund truly life-changing support for the households and businesses struggling to pay their bills right now.

HSBC profits surge as unions call for banks to pay more tax

HSBC has reported a 23% surge in pre-tax profit to $19.5bn for the first six months of this year beating expectations of $18.9bn.

The London-based bank which also has a strong presence in Hong Kong said growth was particularly strong in its wealth management and insurance business.

It now expects to exceed $46bn in profit for the year and announced a new share buyback of up to $1bn.

Kathleen Brooks of the broker XTB says that around $2bn of the increase in profits were down to one-off items so investors may worry that this will not be repeated.

However profitability levels remain high and the company expects its return on tangible equity its main measure of profitability to stay at 17% for this year.

These results were also heavy on shareholder sweeteners which may boost investor interest later today. HSBC announced a second dividend for this year and a share buyback of $1bn to be completed in the next three months.

The share price slipped in overnight trading in the US and HSBC could be a victim of its own success. There is political pressure on PM Andy Burnham to tax banks more and HSBC results and high profit levels could add to calls for a higher levy on the sector which could act as a counterweight to banking stocks later on Tuesday.

Indeed the TUC is arguing this morning that there is now a mountain of evidence to suggest banks can afford to pay more tax.

The union body has proposed the government should use higher taxes on banks to pay for a social tariff that brings down energy bills.

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said there is now a mountain of evidence to suggest that banks can easily afford to pay more tax.

While higher interest rates have meant mortgage misery and bigger bills for the rest of us the big banks have been rolling in it.

Andy Burnham has rightly prioritised cost of living measures in his first days as prime minister but as the war in Iran rumbles on energy prices will rise further and the government will need to do more to protect households.

That is why it is time to increase the tax on bank profits to cut bills. It is common sense and it is the right thing to do.

Burgeoning profits at big oil companies comes as the climate crisis grips the UK and Europe this summer.

Half of England and the whole of Wales are officially in drought and July is set to be the driest month on record environmental agencies have warned.

It is the third such event over the past five years and comes after four record-breaking heatwaves since May which have fuelled huge wildfires and left farmers wildlife and protected habitats running out of water.

Meanwhile in Europe severe wildfires have burned across Spain and France since early July killing people destroying thousands of homes and forcing more than 300 000 people to flee.

BP new boss Meg O'Neill is defending its surge in profit after Donald Trump blasted US oil companies ExxonMobil and Chevron for also reporting windfall earnings last week.

The president told reporters last night that the oil companies should give some of that profit back to the public and they better cut the retail price the consumer price.

O'Neill told CNBC Squawk Box Europe this morning I understand the pressure that the ordinary household feels when they pull into the service station to fill up and see the prices. The reality is we produce a global commodity and the product we sell hangs off the prices for the product we sell hangs off that global commodity price.

What BP is doing is making sure that we are focused on the things we can do to try to help address the situation. We are driving hard on reliability both in our upstream assets where we produce those barrels and the refining assets where we refine them.

And by way of example we have made some shifts to try to produce more jet and diesel because those are the commodities that are in even shorter supply than gasoline. So we are doing what we can.

Our world-class trading organisation is also playing an important role to try to get products to customers as cost-efficiently as we can. You know to play our role to try to tackle those prices at the pump.

BP surge in profits divorced from the public good amid wildfires and drought

Surging profits across the oil industry while Europe grapples with wildfires and drought is prompting a strong backlash from environmental campaigners.

Angharad Hopkinson a political campaigner at Greenpeace says we have just experienced the driest July on record and BP has driven record-breaking droughts unprecedented wildfires and extraordinary excess heatwave deaths. To cause this destruction while amassing $5.7bn in profits shows how corporate gains have become entirely divorced from the public good ordinary people are feeling the heat when it should be the polluters paying the price.

Prolonging this parasitic relationship by trying to squeeze the last few drops of expensive oil out of the North Sea is sheer folly perhaps the one point on which we agree with BP.

But it is not just BP that needs to leave the North Sea Shell and Equinor need to follow suit and give up the Jackdaw and Rosebank fields too. The government should hold fast on no new oil and gas. We need true investment in the clean energy industries of the future which are our only dependable path to good jobs lower bills and long-term prosperity.

Rosie Downes head of campaigns at Friends of the Earth argues that energy companies such as BP should be paying more tax.

Clearly not everyone is feeling the pain of the energy crisis. While BP banks another round of enormous profits millions of households are paying the price through sky-high energy bills and a climate crisis accelerating rapidly out of control with increasingly severe heatwaves wildfires and droughts.

The only way to protect people from soaring bills and climate chaos is to break our dependence on costly and polluting oil and gas by investing in energy efficiency and homegrown renewable power. Andy Burnham must back measures that make companies like BP pay more for the damage they are causing and use that money to speed up the transition to a cleaner fairer and more secure future.

Introduction Oil profits spike as Middle East war fuels energy prices

Profits are surging at oil companies on the back of the spike in energy prices triggered by the war in the Middle East.

BP is the latest to reveal its windfall earnings today its second-quarter profit more than doubled in the second quarter of this year to $5.73bn compared with the same period a year ago beating analyst expectations.