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Economy & Your Money

Exxon and Chevron beat third-quarter estimates as gas averages $4.20 a gallon

Reports say higher prices and record production helped, while a White House spokeswoman says lowering gas prices is Trump's top priority.

8 news outlets reported this · Little coverage from conservative outlets
Liberal5 outletsCenter2 outletsConservative1 outlet
Published 4 min readMoney and daily life
Overview

ExxonMobil and Chevron reported better-than-expected third-quarter results on Friday. Chevron said it earned $9.9 billion. According to The Guardian and ABC News, ExxonMobil lifted its quarterly to $1.07 and announced a $20 billion share buyback plan.

Outlets link the results to higher prices and the disruption from the wars in Iran and Ukraine. The New York Post reports that, according to AAA, regular gasoline averages $4.20 a gallon. Straight Arrow News reports that, according to an analysis, 50 large US oil companies made $130 billion in profit from April to September.

According to that analysis, they earned less than $47 billion in the same months of 2025. At a rally on Oct. 24, Trump said the country is "making hundreds of billions of dollars" because of events in the Middle East, according to The Guardian and NBC News. The Post quotes White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers saying Trump's top priority is lowering gas prices.

Outlets differ mainly in emphasis: some stress consumer costs and the elections, others the market forces behind the earnings.

Three sides of the story

Liberal5 outlets

The Guardian, NBC News and ABC News lead with the companies' results and tie them to fuel prices. The Guardian puts the earnings beside consumer costs and the midterm elections, citing a Harris poll for the Guardian in which 36% of voters named the rising cost of living as the single most important issue. NBC News recalls that in September 2024, then-candidate Trump said his plan would cut energy prices "in half or more than that" within 12 months of taking office, and writes that the administration's moves "have not meaningfully brought prices down."

NBC News also quotes Exxon CEO Darren Woods telling CNBC that a shortage of refining capacity is driving product prices up. The Guardian and NBC News both quote Trump's Oct. 24 rally remarks about "hundreds of billions of dollars." ABC News focuses on company details: Exxon's US Gulf Coast refineries ran at 100% utilization, and Chevron CEO Mike Wirth said the company signed agreements to cut Bakken midstream costs by about 50%.

NPR's report describes another quarter of "sky-high profits" for oil companies, which it ties to the war in Iran raising oil prices and pump prices.

Center2 outlets

Straight Arrow News frames the earnings as a look at who pays for, and who gains from, disruptions in the global oil market. It reports ExxonMobil's $15.4 billion in third-quarter earnings, more than double the $7.5 billion from the same period of 2025, along with Chevron's $9.9 billion and Valero's $6.8 billion in net income in the quarter, up from $1.1 billion a year earlier. It sets those figures beside a Brown University analysis that found gasoline has cost American consumers $81.5 billion more since the war started, measured against the pre-war average price.

On causes, it points to high crude prices and a wider refining margin, known as a crack spread. It quotes energy economist Ed Hirs, who lectures at the University of Houston, saying the prices stem from global market forces, not price gouging. The Journal's report describes "blockbuster earnings" at ExxonMobil and Chevron for the third quarter, and says the world turned to US refineries for fuel.

Conservative1 outlet

The New York Post leads with the scale of the profits: its headline puts Big Oil's profits at over $130 billion, and the story says, according to an analysis it cites, that the April-to-September total was nearly three times the same period a year earlier. Citing Bloomberg, it reports that five oil majors, ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Shell and TotalEnergies, combined for $56.3 billion in adjusted net income for the third quarter, and each topped Wall Street forecasts. The Post also gives space to the president and his office, including Trump's August remarks singling out ExxonMobil and Chevron and urging them to give part of their profits back to the public and bring down retail fuel prices. It quotes Derek Reisfield, co-founder of MarketWatch, saying "There is no short-term fix" and warning that prolonged high oil prices could eventually push investment toward alternative energy and weigh on the industry's long-term prospects.

Money and daily life

For drivers, according to AAA, regular gasoline averages $4.20 a gallon, compared with $2.98 before the war with Iran started in late February. Diesel is about $6.32 a gallon, up 71% from a year ago, according to AAA. Derek Reisfield, a co-founder of MarketWatch, warned that diesel prices could stay elevated. A White House statement quoted by the Post says gas prices "will plummet" once the conflict with Iran ends.

All sources: 8 articles from 8 outlets

Liberal (5)

Center (2)

Conservative (1)

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