NEW YORK (AP) — Big oil companies continue to book massive profits as fighting in Iran disrupts energy markets and sends oil and gasoline prices sharply higher.
Six of Europe’s largest oil companies posted combined first-quarter profits of $22 billion, more than 40% higher than last year. Profits at BP, based in London, more than doubled to $3.9 billion in the second quarter, the company said Tuesday.
And Saudi Aramco reported a 44% year-on-year increase in second-quarter net profit that reached $32.69 billion, driven by higher crude oil, refined products and chemicals prices.
The supercharged performances from big oil in Europe and the Middle East follow reports of enormous profits from the largest U.S. oil drillers last week.
As the conflict has dragged on, high oil prices have driven up the cost of gasoline, jet fuel and diesel, which has led to higher shipping costs. In the West, filling up the car or buying a plane ticket is costing consumers more. But the situation in parts of Asia are more dire because the region depends more heavily on fuel exported through the Strait of Hormuz. Fuel supplies have run low in some countries, leading to rationing and sporadic closures of schools and government offices.
Despite oil prices falling to their lowest level in three weeks Tuesday, big U.S. energy companies drew the ire of President Donald Trump, who criticized them this week for their outsized profits.
Trump said he’s not happy with Chevron and Exxon Mobil, though energy prices skyrocketed only after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in late February, and the Strait of Hormuz was effectively closed off to tanker traffic.
About 20% of the world’s oil typically flows through the strait.
“They made too much money, too much money,” Trump said Monday. “They ought to give some of that back to the public, and they better cut the retail price.”
Exxon Mobil on Friday reported that its second quarter profits doubled to $14.5 billion, boosted by record diesel production. The oil giant, based in Spring, Texas, brought in $116 billion in revenue, up 42%.
Chevron, based in Houston, nearly quadrupled its profits to $12 billion and revenue jumped 56% to more than $70 billion.
On Tuesday, the price of U.S. crude oil fell 5.4%, or $4.36, to $75.98 per barrel. The sharp decline followed comments by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who told CNBC that the U.S. and Iran “may have a deal today or tomorrow to open the Strait.”
Oil prices for U.S. crude are down from around $92 a barrel in late July, but still more than 13% higher than when the conflict with Iran started.
Brent crude, the international standard, fell 4.9% to $83.87 per barrel.
A resolution to the Iran conflict, which has lasted more than five months, could give oil shippers the ability to send vessels out of the Persian Gulf, where tankers of oil and other products have been trapped during the fighting.
Shares of major oil companies are up by around 20% to 30% this year, easily outpacing the 13% gains on the S&P 500.
FILE- A truck enters the Exxon Mobil Baytown Olefins Plant, Wednesday, April 29, 2026, in Baytown, Texas. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis, File)
Young men ride motorcycles along the shore as a tractor pulls equipment from the water and commercial vessels appear anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Monday, July 27, 2026. (Razieh Poudat/ISNA via AP)
The per-gallon price is displayed electronically over the various grades of fuel available from a pump at a QT gasoline station Thursday, July 30, 2026, in Greenwood Village, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — A man who went to prison for killing his father in 2010 has been charged with intentionally setting the largest of the wildfires that have destroyed hundreds of buildings in and around Washington state’s second-largest city and forced tens of thousands of people from their homes.
Aaron F. Farinacci, of Spokane, was arrested Monday and booked on suspicion of first-degree arson in connection with the Old Trails Fire, the biggest of the three blazes in and around the eastern Washington city, the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office said. His bond was set at $1 million and he's due in court later Tuesday.
According to an affidavit, Farinacci denied under questioning by sheriff's deputies that he set the fire and said he had matches and a lighter on him when he was detained because he smokes.
The fires, which hadn't been contained at all as of Tuesday morning, have destroyed at least 700 buildings and forced about 67,000 people to evacuate. Authorities haven’t said what might have caused the other two blazes.
A tip from a community member who saw a nervous-looking man bent by the side of the road near some grass led authorities to Farinacci, though they released him after initial questioning, Sheriff John Nowels said Monday.
When major crimes detectives started investigating, they again identified Farinacci and determined that the fire had started where the witness had reportedly seen him, Nowels said. Farinacci, 37, had matches and a lighter when he was detained, Nowels said.
“As it happens in so many critical cases, it was citizens who were paying attention to their surroundings, being aware and willing to step up and say something that led to the relatively quick apprehension of Mr. Farinacci,” he said.
Farinacci remained jailed ahead of Tuesday's hearing. The Spokane County Public Defender’s office will represent him during the appearance, and a lawyer will be assigned to him afterward if it's determined he needs one, said its director, Colin Charbonneau. In an effort to get comment from Farinacci's family, a message was sent to a possible social media account for a brother.
Farinacci, then age 21, shot and killed his father in Mesa, Arizona, during a 2010 argument about washing dishes, police said. Farinacci also shot himself but survived.
He was charged with murder but pleaded guilty in 2012 to manslaughter and aggravated assault, records show. Farinacci was released from prison in 2020.
The Old Trails Fire began Saturday northwest of downtown Spokane and eventually jumped the Spokane River and tore through neighborhoods.
The three fires had burned about 16 square miles (about 41 square kilometers) by early Tuesday. After the weekend winds died down and shifted, sending smoke across the western part of the state, including the Seattle area, firefighting conditions were expected to worsen again Wednesday, with winds picking up and temperatures expected to reach the 90s (32-37 degrees Celsius), said Benjamin Cossel, a spokesperson for the fire incident management team.
On Monday, some residents who had to flee blazes over the weekend returned to find homes that had been burned to the ground. In some cases, only chimneys were left standing.
“There’s nothing to save,” Miriam Sim, 76, said as she and her husband, Daniel Sim, surveyed the ruins of the home where they had lived since 2005.
“At our age, do we want to rebuild?” her husband asked.
In one Spokane neighborhood, blackened vehicles, a boat twisted by the heat and melted plastic recycling bins remained. Across the street, lawns were still green and houses were spared, as residents continued to run hoses or sprinklers to water their properties.
“Hundreds of people have completely lost their homes and farms, and many are prohibited from returning to their homes or neighborhoods as crews continue to extinguish smoldering embers,” the state's congressional delegation wrote Monday in asking President Donald Trump to approve an expedited emergency declaration, which he did.
Cpl. Mark Gregory, a spokesperson for the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, said the county initially received nearly 300 reports of missing people, but by Monday had cleared all but 14. Those still unaccounted for were likely people who hadn't been in contact since evacuating, not people who were truly missing or in danger, authorities said.
More than 1,000 firefighters, many from out of state, arrived by Monday, and that number was expected to double in the next few days.
The fires were among dozens across the Western U.S. stretching the ability of federal, state and local agencies to fight them. At least 390 square miles (1,000 square kilometers) of land has burned across Washington, which has been dealing with a severe drought and paltry snowpack.
Authorities warned people not to fly drones near the burned areas, saying it could force them to delay aerial firefighting operations.
Angela and Wayde Deatherage, both 49, evacuated shortly after 3 p.m. Saturday with a son, grabbing a few bins of family photos and heirloom rings but not much else. Roughly 30 minutes later, their security camera was sending fire notifications to Angela’s phone.
Wayde Deatherage took some back roads and returned by early evening. He stopped at the end of the street and called his wife: “Our house is done.”
Deatherage, however, wasn't done with his neighborhood. He propped a hose at another house so it sprayed the property. That home survived.
The couple returned to their property Sunday.
“It’s just ash,” Angela Deatherage said of the home where they had lived for nearly 22 years. “It’s like our house sunk down in the basement. ... There’s just so much loss for so many people.”
Karen Faggioli, 61, figured she would be returning to her home. She recalled how other recent fires had been brought under control. But a relative texted her the bad news: Her house and three vehicles had been destroyed. A daughter lost her nearby house, too.
“Why cry? What’s crying going to do? I’ve been through so many tragedies myself,” said Faggioli, who is recovering from breast cancer. “This is nothing. Like I told my granddaughter, ‘We’re strong — and now we get all new things.’ I’m emotionally numb.”
Johnson reported from Seattle and White from Detroit. Associated Press writers Manuel Valdes in Spokane; John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; and Martha Bellisle and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed.
Allen Sather stands in front of his 1968 Chevrolet C20 at the duplex he rented on W. Indian Trail Rd. that burned in a wildfire in Spokane, Wash., Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Young Kwak)
From left, homeowner Al Acosta, his son Louis Acosta, daughter Renee Stewart and son-in-law Jamie Stewart look through the remains of Al's home after a wildfire hit the northern part of Spokane, Wash., Monday, Aug. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
A "for sale" sign is still seen on the back of a van burned after a wildfire hit the northern part of Spokane, Wash., Monday, Aug. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Chimneys are the only structures remaining in a residential neighborhood after a wildfire hit the northern part of Spokane, Wash., Monday, Aug. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Trees burned by a wildfire stand near destroyed structures in the Indian trail neighborhood, Monday, Aug. 3, 2026, in Spokane, Wash. (AP Photo/Young Kwak)
Miriam Sim, 76, reacts as she walks through the burned remains of her neighborhood after a wildfire hit the northern part of Spokane, Wash., Monday, Aug. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Daniel Sim, 76, views the remains of his destroyed house after a wildfire hit the northern part of Spokane, Wash., Monday, Aug. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Miriam Sim, 76, reacts while talking about her neighborhood largely burning to the ground after a wildfire hit the northern part of Spokane, Wash., Monday, Aug. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
A worker with Avista moves through a property after a wildfire hit the northern part of Spokane, Wash., Monday, Aug. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
