Oil Majors Double Profits in Europe in Latest Quarter

A new analysis from the environmental group Transport & Environment finds that eight major oil companies made €7.5 billion in extra profit across Europe in the first half of 2026, compared with the same period last year. Six of them — BP, Shell, Eni, Orlen, Repsol, and OMV — more than doubled their European profits in the second quarter alone, driven by oil price swings tied to unrest in the Middle East. The group is calling on the EU to make a windfall tax on these profits permanent, with the money used to help drivers deal with volatile fuel prices.

This is a European policy story, not something tied to a specific home upgrade or rebate. But it points to a pattern worth knowing about: gasoline and diesel prices swing sharply with global oil markets and events overseas, and oil companies tend to profit from that volatility while drivers absorb the cost at the pump. The analysis found that countries with more electric vehicles on the road, like Denmark, are far less exposed to these price spikes than countries with fewer EVs, like Poland.

For a homeowner, the takeaway is less about any immediate rebate or deadline and more about the bigger picture: heating and transportation costs tied to oil and gas remain unpredictable, while electricity-based options like heat pumps and electric vehicles are less exposed to these swings. There's no new program or deadline here to act on, just a data point on how oil markets are currently behaving.