Consumer frustration may be running high as drivers pay well above $4 a gallon at the pump, but the big winners from the Iran war are U.S. oil producers and refiners whose profits and share prices have soared. The stock values of leading U.S. oil players have jumped 20%-70% this year as crude prices and demand spiked—many near all-time highs—and analysts think the rally may not be fleeting.
Beyond the war-driven boom, executives and analysts point to rising global oil demand to replenish or build up strategic reserves as well as greater reliance on Western Hemisphere supplies amid growing geopolitical unrest in the Middle East and other hot spots. Those trends could keep prices higher than expected into 2027 and even 2028, they said.
