ExxonMobil reported second-quarter 2026 earnings of $14.5 billion, or $3.48 per share, according to the company's news disclosures (ExxonMobil). Adjusted earnings — which remove one-time items to show the company's ongoing performance more clearly — came in at $14.7 billion, or $3.52 per share.

That's a huge swing from just one quarter earlier. ExxonMobil's Q1 2026 net income was $4.2 billion, down from $7.7 billion in the same period of 2025 (Energy Now). Q1 revenue of $85.14 billion did beat analyst estimates of $82.18 billion (CNBC, but profits took a $1.26 billion loss in the Energy Products segment, which covers refining oil into fuel and selling it (Quartz. That loss came from the direct hit to ExxonMobil's fuel operations when geopolitical disruption began affecting petroleum shipments early in the year.

Fighting between Iran and the U.S. impeded petroleum shipments in 2026 (ABC News), and ExxonMobil's results tell that story in two chapters. Q1 captured the initial shock: disrupted supply chains, squeezed fuel profits, and income nearly cut in half compared to a year earlier. Q2 captured the payoff. Think of it like a farmer whose crops get delayed by a storm. The storm hurts at first, but when supply drops and prices rise, the farmer eventually sells what they have for more money. ExxonMobil pumps its own oil and also refines and sells fuel, so when crude prices went up, the higher prices eventually reached the company's bottom line — just a quarter or two later.

The swing from $4.2 billion in Q1 to $14.5 billion in Q2 is a 245% increase in reported profit from one quarter to the next. The adjusted figure widens the gap even more: $14.7 billion adjusted in Q2 versus a Q1 number that was already dragged down by segment losses. For context, ExxonMobil's Q1 2025 net income was $7.7 billion, meaning Q2 2026 adjusted earnings are roughly 91% above the year-ago baseline quarter.

Chevron also published its second-quarter 2026 earnings results on July 31, 2026 (Chevron), though the specific figures from that release are not yet detailed here. In Q1 2026, Chevron reported adjusted earnings of $1.41 per share (CNBC. The two biggest oil companies reporting on the same day gives the market a clean side-by-side comparison of how the Iran-U.S. disruption affected each business, since they have different mixes of oil production, refining, and geographic reach.

The broader context here is about how political conflict turns into oil company profits with a built-in delay. The Iran-U.S. fighting created two distinct effects: an immediate cost and logistics shock that hit Q1 results (visible in ExxonMobil's Energy Products segment loss and lower income), followed by a price-driven earnings boost in Q2 as higher crude prices flowed through. ExxonMobil's results are the clearest example of this two-phase pattern, and Chevron's same-day release will let analysts check whether the effect is unique to ExxonMobil or happening across the whole industry.

For investors and analysts, the key question is whether these profits will last. The $14.5 billion Q2 figure includes the full benefit of the price spike caused by the disruption. The adjusted $14.7 billion figure removes some noise but still reflects those higher oil prices. Neither number tells you what earnings look like when supply returns to normal. The Q1-to-Q2 swing is so large that projecting it forward would be unreliable, and how long the Iran-U.S. disruption lasts remains the main factor that will shape the second half of 2026 for the sector.

Chevron's same-day release will be the immediate next data point for comparing how the two companies fared. The comparison matters because Chevron and ExxonMobil produce oil in different places, refine fuel in different markets, and have different positions in the liquefied natural gas trade, so the Iran-U.S. disruption will have worked its way through each company differently.