{"id":105510,"date":"2026-08-17T23:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T23:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/105510\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T23:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T23:40:09","slug":"brent-crude-nears-89-as-hormuz-stays-disrupted-exxon-chevron-and-shell-rack-up-record-cash-flow-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/105510\/","title":{"rendered":"Brent Crude Nears $89 As Hormuz Stays Disrupted \u2013 Exxon, Chevron And Shell Rack Up Record Cash Flow"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">The Kobeissi Letter said that the top 5 international oil companies, including ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, TotalEnergies, and BP, generated almost $70 billion in free cash flow in the second quarter of 2026, the largest amount on record.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">This surpasses the previous peak of about $60 billion that was reached in Q2 2022, during the Russia-Ukraine tensions.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">Meanwhile, last week, the U.S. Department of Energy said that crude oil reserves in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve had fallen below 300 million barrels, reaching their lowest level in more than four decades.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">The price of Brent crude oil is rising amid the ongoing U.S.-Iran conflict, catching up to July levels to near about $89 per barrel.\u00a0  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">Even as passage through the Strait of Hormuz remains uncertain, and relations between the two countries remain tense, the world&#8217;s largest oil companies are stocking up on cash, according to The Kobeissi Letter. The figure was about 600% higher than the prior quarter and above the roughly $60 billion peak recorded in Q2 2022 following Russia&#8217;s invasion of Ukraine.\u00a0  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/stocktwits.com\/newsletters\" data-ylk=\"slk:See%20what%2010M%2B%20investors%20are%20talking%20about.%20Get%20the%20Stocktwits%20Daily%20Rip%20for%20what%20retail%20is%20watching%20right%20now%2C%20free%20to%20your%20inbox;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;source:content-canvas%20default\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;See what 10M+ investors are talking about. Get the Stocktwits Daily Rip for what retail is watching right now, free to your inbox&quot;,&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yTrafficOrigin&quot;:&quot;content-canvas default&quot;}\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">See what 10M+ investors are talking about. Get the Stocktwits Daily Rip for what retail is watching right now, free to your inbox<\/a>  <\/p>\n<p>        Big Oil&#8217;s Q2 Free Cash Flow Hits Record\u00a0          <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">In a\u00a0post on X, The Kobeissi Letter said, &#8220;The world&#8217;s largest oil companies are now holding a record cash pile: The top 5 international oil companies generated almost ~$70 billion in free cash flow in Q2 2026, the largest amount on record.&#8221;  <\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/lo\/mysterio\/api\/89E2D3B8972AFB0E90E3EEDF53FCC1518708DC88749D6A0E58DF952B2F841173\/subgraphmysterio\/resizefit_w960;quality_80;format_webp\/https:%2F%2Fmedia.zenfs.com%2Fen%2Fstocktwits_383%2Fcbe38deab968de9b1234c812a77c5031.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==\" alt=\"HPx_CzfWEAAr5VH.jpeg\" height=\"657\" width=\"960\" class=\"yf-j98iil loader\"\/><\/a> Source: The Kobeissi Letter           <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">As per the market commentator, this includes\u00a0ExxonMobil Corp. (XOM),\u00a0Chevron Corp. (CVX),\u00a0Shell PLC (SHEL),\u00a0TotalEnergies (TTE) and\u00a0BP PLC (BP).\u00a0  <\/p>\n<p>        Oil Majors&#8217; Cash Reserves Climb To 2022 Peaks          <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">The second-quarter cash reserves of the top five oil majors marks an increase of about 600% quarter-over-quarter, The Kobeissi Letter said.\u00a0  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">This surpasses the previous peak of about $60 billion that was reached in Q2 2022, during the Russia-Ukraine tensions.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">Meanwhile, net income across the group has also jumped more than 160% year-over-year to $47 billion, the third-largest on record, as per the post.\u00a0  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">&#8220;Oil companies are building unprecedented cash piles amid the Iran War,&#8221; The Kobeissi Letter said.\u00a0  <\/p>\n<p>        U.S. Crude Stockpiles Plummet Sharply Amid Iran War          <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">The U.S. and Iran have been at war since February of this year, causing a choke in the critical Strait of Hormuz and disrupting oil supplies globally.\u00a0  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">Last week, U.S. Department of Energy data showed that crude oil reserves in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve had fallen below 300 million barrels, reaching their lowest level in more than four decades. The SPR declined by 6.1 million barrels to 298.7 million barrels last week, according to the data.\u00a0  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">&#8220;As Trump&#8217;s war on Iran SQUEEZES global oil supply, the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve reaches critical lows. TRUMP&#8217;S WAR OF CHOICE ON IRAN = UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES = STAY LONG OIL,&#8221; economist Steve Hanke said in a\u00a0post on X.\u00a0  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump said at a rally in New York on Friday that, once the U.S. has defeated Iran, he intends to claim the Strait of Hormuz as &#8220;a territory of the United States.&#8221;  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">Iran, meanwhile, has signaled that it will fiercely defend control of the strategic waterway. Major General Hatami said the &#8220;sacred Strait of Hormuz&#8221; is critical to ending the war and that Iran would defend it with &#8220;full force,&#8221; according to the Islamic Republic News Agency.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">A memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran, intended to contain the escalating conflict, is also due to expire Monday. An extension appears unlikely after both sides have spent weeks accusing the other of violating the agreement.  <\/p>\n<p>       How Are Oil Stocks Performing?         <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">Oil stocks and exchange-traded funds have climbed since the U.S.-Iran conflict began earlier this year.\u00a0  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">The\u00a0ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Crude Oil (UCO) and the\u00a0United States Oil Fund (USO) have soared over 62% and 54% each since Feb. 28. Meanwhile, the top five oil majors have also seen their shares climb significantly.\u00a0  <\/p>\n<p>   <a href=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/lo\/mysterio\/api\/DFE6AD0ED2BE2497FB34674534F4383235C6F3A5DA376A32FF75F7E0F00D6A0A\/subgraphmysterio\/resizefit_w960;quality_80;format_webp\/https:%2F%2Fmedia.zenfs.com%2Fen%2Fstocktwits_383%2F27b6e2b9e2543af5c50c7f60ee2aaf5d.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==\" alt=\"koyfin_20260817_114016988.png\" height=\"600\" width=\"960\" class=\"yf-j98iil loader\"\/><\/a>         <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">However, on Stocktwits, retail sentiment around USO, XOM, CVX, SHEL, and BP stocks was &#8216;bearish,&#8217; while it was &#8216;neutral&#8217; for UCO and TTE.\u00a0  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">Aashika Suresh has no position in any of the stocks mentioned in this article. StockTwits&#8217; news team content is for informational purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. For more, see our <a href=\"https:\/\/stocktwits.com\/about-newsroom\" data-ylk=\"slk:editorial%20policy;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;source:content-canvas%20default\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;editorial policy&quot;,&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yTrafficOrigin&quot;:&quot;content-canvas default&quot;}\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">editorial policy<\/a>. This article was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/stocktwits.com\/news\/articles\" data-ylk=\"slk:StockTwits;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;source:content-canvas%20default\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;StockTwits&quot;,&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yTrafficOrigin&quot;:&quot;content-canvas default&quot;}\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">StockTwits<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">Related:  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Kobeissi Letter said that the top 5 international oil companies, including ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, TotalEnergies, and BP,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[20685],"tags":[37267,7939,44108,1449,44106,242,1150,4496,1146,38790,44107],"class_list":["post-105510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-shell","tag-chevron","tag-free-cash-flow","tag-international-oil-companies","tag-iran-war","tag-kobeissi-letter","tag-oil-companies","tag-shell","tag-shell-plc","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-strategic-petroleum-reserve","tag-u-s-department-of-energy"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117113495417469962","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}