Big Oil reaped more than $50 billion in windfall profits as conflicts in the Persian Gulf and Russia roiled energy markets and drove refining results to record highs.

BP Plc said profit jumped to the highest in 18 years as soaring refining margins boosted earnings, speeding up the energy giant’s efforts to fix its balance sheet and pay down debt.

To catch US rivals, Wael Sawan needs to show he can combine spending discipline with expansion.

Shell Plc boosted its share buyback to one of the highest levels in its history, returning more of a wartime refining windfall to investors as disruptions across the Middle East and Russia squeeze global fuel supplies.

EQT Corp. agreed to buy rival shale driller Range Resources Corp. in an all-stock deal for about $12.8 billion that will create the largest US natural gas producer.

BP Plc cut net debt by around $8 billion in the past three months, reaching its 2027 target early after surging prices drove windfall profits from energy trading and oil refining.

A US ban on diesel exports could result in higher prices in some parts of the country as well as causing issues with other nations that rely on American supplies, Chevron Corp. Chief Executive Officer Mike Wirth said on Tuesday.

Repsol SA anticipates about 90% of its crude oil supplies falling short of new European Union methane requirements that are due to take effect in January, the latest in a series of warnings from the industry that the rules could threaten the region’s energy supplies.

Diesel prices outside the US surged relative to American rates as the possibility of the Trump Administration introducing an export ban rattled the market.

Venezuela is considering whether it should quit OPEC, according to people familiar with the matter, potentially delivering a fresh blow to the oil cartel it helped create more than six decades ago.

The cost of shipping oil cargoes on a supertanker through the Strait of Hormuz is about $20 million, the boss of TotalEnergies SE said, underscoring the wide margins to be made by traders and shipowners.

The global oil market has diverged fundamentally, with a bearish outlook for crude but bullish prices for products, according to the CEOs of Europe’s largest energy companies.

ExxonMobil Holdings Corp. and Chevron Corp. plowed blowout profits into debt reduction rather than huge buyback increases in a sign of Big Oil’s caution about how long war-driven price rallies will last.

ExxonMobil Holdings Corp. and Chevron Corp. plowed blowout profits into debt reduction rather than huge buyback increases in a sign of Big Oil’s caution about how long war-driven price rallies will last.

BP Plc said it’s starting a process to market its North Sea business for a potential sale, as part of a wider review of the oil major’s portfolio.

Dislocations have created lucrative opportunities for companies able to source, transport and process energy across markets.

Shell Plc’s quarterly profit soared to the second-highest on record as conflict in the Middle East fueled a boom in trading and refining for global energy companies.

Jeff Currie, the former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. commodities chief whose calls made him one of Wall Street’s best-known energy market strategists, is preparing to raise £50 million ($67 million) in a London stock market listing to build an oil producer in the Gulf of Mexico.

BP Plc said it expects to write down another $1 billion from energy transition assets in the second quarter, as the British major continues the painstaking work of re-orientating itself toward its core oil and gas business.

BP Plc boosted jet fuel production at its European refineries by about 30% during the Iran conflict, helping the region avoid major shortages while millions of barrels were locked up in the Persian Gulf.