By Amara Osei

ExxonMobil booked $15.4 billion in third-quarter earnings, or $3.72 a share, as refining profits pushed both major oil companies past analyst forecasts. ExxonMobil's Energy Products segment earned $7.2 billion, exceeding the $7.1 billion generated by its Upstream business in the same quarter.

Adjusted earnings at ExxonMobil reached $17.5 billion, or $4.23 a share, against the $4.08 a share that analysts polled by LSEG had expected, according to CNBC. Chevron reported earnings of $9.9 billion, or $5.06 a share, compared with $3.5 billion a year earlier. Its adjusted earnings of $10.4 billion, or $5.28 a share, beat the $4.89 consensus.

Where did the profit surge come from?

Refining drove the outperformance at both companies. ExxonMobil's Energy Products segment earned $7.2 billion, up from $5.5 billion in the second quarter. Chevron's downstream earnings (the business of turning crude into fuels) rose to $4.9 billion from $1.1 billion.

U.S. downstream results accounted for most of Chevron's gain: $3.6 billion, up from $638 million. Chevron attributed the increase to higher margins on refined product sales.

Operations ran at near-full capacity. Chevron's U.S. refineries set a record of 1.09 million barrels a day of crude throughput, with crude unit utilization near 98%, the company said. ExxonMobil said its U.S. Gulf Coast refineries ran their crude units flat out, and diesel output at those plants was the second largest ever recorded there.

What are executives saying about fuel prices?

ExxonMobil is directing capital toward its refineries in an effort to lift fuel supply, according to Reuters. Chief Financial Officer Neil Hansen framed the response in direct terms.

"It's important to acknowledge that these higher fuel prices put real pressure on families and businesses," Hansen told Reuters. "The most meaningful response ... that we can offer as a company is to pull every lever that's available to us to increase supply."

Chevron has its own expansion plans. Chief Financial Officer Eimear Bonner told Reuters the company could add 7% to the capacity of its Pascagoula refinery in Mississippi by decade's end.

How much went back to shareholders?

Both companies reduced debt and increased cash returns in the quarter:

• ExxonMobil cut net debt by nearly $11 billion so far this year and returned $9.4 billion to shareholders in the quarter through dividends and share repurchases.
• It announced $20 billion of share repurchases for 2027 and declared a fourth-quarter dividend of $1.07 a share.
• Chevron reduced total debt by $3.5 billion and net debt by $7.8 billion in the quarter, and its board declared a quarterly dividend of $1.78 a share.

Shares of ExxonMobil and Chevron gained roughly 2% during Friday's session.

What is the political and supply backdrop?

The results follow second-quarter profits that led President Donald Trump to demand the two companies cut retail gasoline prices. The companies and their trade groups have rejected allegations of price gouging.

The supply picture remains disrupted. The Iran war began on Feb. 28, when the U.S. and Israel struck Iran. The Strait of Hormuz is effectively shut, and strikes on Saudi and Russian refineries have cut fuel production capacity, according to Reuters.

Those constraints have tightened global fuel supply and widened refining margins (the difference between crude costs and wholesale product prices), the principal driver behind both companies' downstream gains this quarter.