Oil Giants Predict Big Gains From Consumer Pain

Early Data Reveals Massive Windfalls From Refining Profits

This week, oil industry executives have been busy crunching the numbers on the past few months. With Americans paying record high prices at the pump, oil companies have been making massive profits on refinery margins, the profit that they make by selling gasoline for more money than the cost of the crude oil it came from. Full quarterly reports will come later this month, but in the meantime, some early filings from ExxonMobil and Shell have given the public some insight into just how much the oil industry is raking in from consumers paying high prices.

Here are some key takeaways from the recent filings:

• A filing by ExxonMobil revealed that they anticipate between $1 billion and $1.4 billion in profit growth from liquid fuels, and another $1.5 billion to $1.9 billion from gas. 
• Overall, analysts expect ExxonMobil to report as much as $18 billion in profit for the months of April, May, and June.
• Meanwhile, Shell also revealed in a filing that their refining margin more than doubled from the first quarter to the second quarter of the year, which is expected to add more than $1 billion to quarterly earnings.