Oil Billionaires Net $23.5 Billion Surge Amid Iran Conflict

While many hope that the U.S.–Israeli war with Iran may be winding down after reports of a ceasefire, the owners of the world’s largest energy firms are seeing a very different picture.

According to a report released by Oxfam International on Monday, 41 energy sector magnates in Group of Seven (G7) nations have collectively added $23.5 billion to their fortunes since the war began in late February, coinciding with the G7 leaders’ meeting in France.

The oil shocks triggered by the conflict have driven fuel prices sharply higher, fueling inflation worldwide and squeezing household budgets across the globe.

A United Nations Development Programme projection from April warned that the war could push an additional 32 million people into poverty by the end of the year.

Between March 1 and May 18, owners of the largest oil and energy companies in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom added an average of $300 million per day to their combined wealth, Oxfam found by analysing Forbes’ Real‑Time Billionaire List.

“Conflict devastates countries and costs countless lives, yet for some it is extraordinarily profitable,” said Oxfam International executive director Amitabh Behar. “This is a brutal system that redistributes wealth upwards—from workers to shareholders, from the poorest to the richest, from those with the least power to those who already have far too much of it. While families are skipping meals and governments slash life‑saving aid, we are witnessing a grotesque billionaire bonanza.”

While the wealth gains cannot be attributed solely to the war, Oxfam noted that the six biggest oil companies—Chevron, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, Exxon and TotalEnergies—are projected to see profits this year rise 80 % above pre‑war forecasts, compared with an 8 % increase for the average large G7 firm in the sample.

Global billionaires’ wealth rose about 0.42 % between March and mid‑May. In the same period, G7 energy billionaires saw a 9 % increase, and those specifically in oil and gas nearly 11 %.

Oxfam argues that the Iran war has widened the already vast gap between rich and poor, a divide in which G7 nations play a significant role.

Since 2020, billionaire wealth worldwide has surged by almost $10 trillion, while G7 countries—particularly the United States under President Donald Trump—have cut aid to the poorest nations by $48 billion, an amount equal to what G7 billionaires amassed in just nine days.

Since 2019, when France last chaired a G7 summit, Oxfam estimates that 44 people per minute have required humanitarian assistance, based on 2025 data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Behar says that to secure U.S. participation in this week’s summit, French President Emmanuel Macron has avoided any topics that could upset Trump, including the human cost of the Iran war, Israel’s U.S.-backed conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, and the climate crisis, which Trump has dismissed as “a scam.”

“Rather than defending collective governance, Macron and his peers are accommodating its destruction. This will have consequences measured in lives,” he added.

Oxfam called on the “G6”—the G7 members excluding the United States—to devise a comprehensive plan to shield people from the economic turmoil caused by the war and other global crises.

“The G6 can’t plead powerlessness,” Behar said. “They can cancel debt. They can tax windfall profits and extreme wealth… They can provide poorer countries with aid. Refusing to act simply because Washington will not join them is not diplomacy—it is cowardice. And it will only accelerate the G6’s slide into global irrelevance.”

– Common Dreams

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