Equinor, an energy company majority-owned by the Norwegian government, made $11.5 billion in profit during the second quarter of 2026. That is nearly double what it earned during the same period a year earlier, and slightly more than financial experts had predicted (The Guardian). The company also reported net income of $4.84 billion and adjusted earnings per share — a measure of profit divided among shareholders — of $1.33 (Equinor).

These numbers came out on July 22, 2026, the same day the US military launched its 11th straight night of attacks on Iran, hitting aircraft hangars and drone storage sites (The Guardian). The price of oil, which is set by a benchmark called Brent crude, rose 3% that day to $95 per barrel before settling at $94. Over the previous three months, the price had bounced between $75 and over $100. During the same months of 2025, oil had traded between about $60 and $70 (The Guardian).

When the conflict with Iran began, shipping through the Strait of Hormuz — a narrow channel between Iran and Oman that normally carries a large share of the world's oil — nearly stopped. Equinor increased its own oil and gas production to help fill that gap (The Guardian). The company's energy trading unit had already earned more than expected earlier in the year, surpassing its $400 million profit guidance partly because of the Iran war (Reuters).

The situation has shifted back and forth rather than moving in one direction. The US and Iran signed a temporary agreement in about June 2026 that lowered oil prices for a time, but fighting later resumed (The Guardian). The conflict has also spread beyond the two countries. Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi group announced a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia. The Houthis control the coast at the entrance to the Red Sea, and Saudi Arabia had been using a pipeline to the Red Sea to export its oil because the Strait of Hormuz route was restricted (The Guardian). With two major shipping routes now disrupted, oil producers outside the affected areas have gained more power to set prices.

Equinor is the largest supplier of gas to the UK, which makes these results directly relevant to British households (The Guardian). A climate campaign group called Uplift criticized the company for earning large profits while UK families struggle to pay their energy bills. Tessa Khan, who leads Uplift, has been a vocal opponent of Equinor's expansion plans (The Guardian).

Equinor is pushing the UK government, led by Prime Minister Andy Burnham, to approve production at a new oilfield called Rosebank, located off the coast of the Shetland Islands (The Guardian). The conflict-driven rise in oil prices has added urgency to the debate over whether to produce more oil at home for security reasons or to hold back in order to meet climate commitments.

On the business side, Equinor said it would start the third phase of its 2026 share buy-back programme — a plan to purchase its own shares from the market, which tends to boost their value — on July 22, 2026, and released details about its cash dividend for the quarter on the same day (Equinor). The company acquired bp's stake in the Bay du Nord project on July 6, 2026 (Equinor). Safety results published on July 10 showed that serious incidents stayed level in Q2 2026, though personal injuries rose somewhat (Equinor). Equinor had invited analysts to submit their forecasts for the quarter on July 8 (Equinor). A Bloomberg estimate from May had predicted adjusted operating income after tax at an average of $2.6 billion (Bloomberg).

CEO Anders Opedal runs a company that is benefiting from high war-driven oil prices, buying up new assets, and facing political pressure in its biggest export market at the same time. The Q2 results slightly beat the analyst forecasts Equinor tracks, though the $11.5 billion headline figure from The Guardian is close to the $11.48 billion on Equinor's own news page (Equinor).

The broader context here is a lasting increase in the "risk premium" — the extra amount buyers pay for oil when they worry supply might be cut off. Oil prices in the second quarter of 2026 ran roughly 35-45% higher than the same period in 2025. For a company as large as Equinor, that difference flows straight into profit. The open question for markets is whether the renewed fighting between the US and Iran, along with the Houthi blockade of Saudi Arabia's Red Sea exports, will keep prices high through the rest of 2026, or whether another diplomatic breakthrough, like the June agreement, will bring them back down. In either case, Equinor enters the second half of the year with a stronger financial position and a buy-back programme that signals confidence. For UK leaders, the tension between household energy costs and the decision on whether to approve Rosebank is not going away.