ExxonMobil Q2 2026: earnings doubled to $14.5B, adj. refining tripled

ExxonMobil earned $14.53 billion in the second quarter of 2026, or $3.48 per diluted share, against $7.08 billion and $1.64 a year earlier; adjusted earnings were $14.68 billion ($3.52). The company does not forecast its earnings — its July 7 “earnings considerations” 8-K says it “is not an estimate of 2Q 2026 earnings” — but the items it quantified that can be matched to reported figures landed inside or at the edge of its own ranges: timing effects of $2,546 million in Energy Products against a flagged $2.2 to $3.0 billion, impairments of $1,079 million against a flagged $0.8 to $1.2 billion in total, and Upstream financial reserves of $1,199 million against a flagged $1.2 to $1.4 billion — $1 million below the bottom of that range. Year over year, earnings roughly doubled (our arithmetic).

ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) produces oil and gas (Upstream), refines fuels (Energy Products), and makes chemicals and lubricants (Chemical and Specialty Products). Since July 1, 2026 the listed parent is ExxonMobil Holdings Corporation, a Texas company that succeeded Exxon Mobil Corporation as the SEC registrant in a redomiciliation; the business is unchanged. Chairman and CEO Darren Woods summed it up in the release: “The second quarter was shaped by disruption, but defined by execution.” This quarter’s story is the refining segment: on an adjusted basis it earned roughly three times what it did a year earlier, while production actually fell.

ExxonMobil Q2 2026 results at a glance

	2Q26	1Q26	2Q25
Earnings (U.S. GAAP)	$14,525M	$4,183M	$7,082M
Diluted EPS	$3.48	$1.00	$1.64
Adjusted earnings	$14,680M	$8,772M	$6,972M
Adjusted diluted EPS	$3.52	$2.09	$1.61
Upstream (adjusted)	$9,189M	$6,265M	$5,283M
Energy Products (adjusted)	$4,099M	$2,799M	$1,375M
Chemical Products (adjusted)	$1,214M	$110M	$293M
Specialty Products (adjusted)	$969M	$651M	$780M
Corporate and Financing (adjusted)	$(791)M	$(1,053)M	$(759)M
Cash flow from operations	$23,555M	$8,705M	$11,550M
Free cash flow	$17,236M	$2,699M	$5,393M
Oil-equivalent production	4,514 koebd	4,594 koebd	4,630 koebd

Koebd is thousands of oil-equivalent barrels per day. ExxonMobil’s adjusted earnings remove “identified items” (large non-operational events) and estimated timing effects — mark-to-market gains or losses on derivatives that hedge physical cargoes, plus LIFO inventory effects, which the company says unwind in later periods. Free cash flow, as ExxonMobil defines it, is operating cash flow plus net investing cash flow (so it includes asset-sale proceeds), not simply operating cash flow minus capex.

Against the first quarter, GAAP earnings were about 3.5 times higher, but adjusted earnings only about 1.7 times (our arithmetic): the first quarter carried $3,883 million of unfavorable timing effects, and the second carried $2,483 million of favorable ones. For the first half, adjusted earnings were $23,452 million against $14,555 million a year earlier, up about 61%, and GAAP earnings $18,708 million against $14,795 million, up about 26% (our arithmetic).

Did ExxonMobil land inside its own Q2 guidance?

On the items that can be matched, yes, or within $1 million of it. ExxonMobil’s July 7 filing listed about nine estimated effects for the quarter relative to the first quarter — market factors (liquids prices, gas prices, margins), scheduled maintenance, Middle East volume disruptions, and adjusting items (impairments, “other, including reserves,” other Middle East impacts, timing effects) — and says explicitly that it is not an earnings estimate. The market and volume factors are not reported after the fact; the adjusting items are. Measured against the reported figures:

Item	Flagged on July 7	Reported July 31
Timing effects, Energy Products	+$2.2B to +$3.0B	+$2,546M
Timing effects, Upstream	−$0.3B to +$0.3B	−$63M
Impairments (all segments)	−$0.8B to −$1.2B	−$1,079M
Other, including reserves, Upstream	−$1.2B to −$1.4B	−$1,199M (10-Q)
Other identified items incl. reserves and Middle East impacts, all segments	about −$0.9B to −$2.3B (summed; our arithmetic)	−$1,559M

The Upstream reserves figure of $1,199 million sits $1 million below the bottom of the flagged $1.2 to $1.4 billion range — at its edge, effectively at the low end.

The release attributes the impairments mostly to non-U.S. Energy Products ($884 million), with $48 million in Chemical Products and $147 million in Corporate and Financing. Other identified items of $1,559 million include $1,365 million of additions to financial reserves and $194 million of Middle East impacts. The release does not describe the reserves; the 10-Q, filed August 3, books $1,199 million of them in Upstream and says the estimated earnings impact of a July 31, 2026 settlement with the state of Louisiana and coastal parishes over coastal-erosion claims is included in “the second quarter financial reserve updates.” The July 7 filing also flagged scheduled maintenance as a $0.2 to $0.4 billion drag on Energy Products versus the first quarter, and Middle East volume disruptions as a $0.6 to $0.8 billion drag on Upstream; the release does not quantify either one after the fact, so they cannot be checked.

Where did ExxonMobil’s Q2 2026 earnings come from?

Mostly from Upstream in dollars, but mostly from refining in growth. On an adjusted basis, Upstream rose to $9,189 million from $5,283 million a year earlier, and Energy Products to $4,099 million from $1,375 million — about 3.0 times (our arithmetic). Of the roughly $7.7 billion year-over-year increase in adjusted earnings, Upstream supplied about $3.9 billion and Energy Products about $2.7 billion (our arithmetic). Chemical Products earnings also roughly quadrupled to $1,214 million from $293 million (our arithmetic); against the first quarter, the release cites “North American feed advantage and reliability enabled margin capture.”

The refining backdrop shows in the supplement’s marker data: the indicative refining margin, a Platts-based benchmark the company reports, averaged $29.0 a barrel against $16.3 in the first quarter. The release says Energy Products earnings “increased on strong U.S. Gulf Coast utilization and record diesel production, partly offset by scheduled maintenance impacts.” Worldwide refinery throughput was 3,562 thousand barrels a day, up from 3,494 in the first quarter. The diesel record is a second-quarter record — “record second-quarter diesel production,” in the company’s words — not an all-time one.

Upstream benefited from price. U.S. crude realizations were $97.58 a barrel against $70.12 in the first quarter, and non-U.S. crude $92.42 against $69.98. Volume went the other way: production of 4,514 koebd was about 2.5% below the year-ago 4,630 (our arithmetic), with Asia gas production roughly halving to 1,274 million cubic feet a day from 2,500 in the first quarter. The company describes the result as its “highest Upstream production in more than two decades, excluding the Middle East disruptions,” and reports record Permian production of more than 1.8 million oil-equivalent barrels a day.

How does ExxonMobil’s quarter compare with Chevron’s?

On reported (GAAP) earnings — the only basis on which the two are measured the same way — ExxonMobil earned $14.53 billion against Chevron’s $12.07 billion, about $2.45 billion more (our arithmetic). The two “adjusted earnings” figures are not comparable: ExxonMobil’s ($14.68 billion) excludes its $2.48 billion of favorable timing effects, while Chevron’s ($11.98 billion) excludes only special items and currency effects and keeps its roughly $1.4 billion of timing effects inside.

	ExxonMobil	Chevron
Earnings (GAAP)	$14,525M	$12,072M
Diluted EPS	$3.48	$6.11
Cash flow from operations	$23.6B	$22.6B
Capital spending	$6.8B (cash capex)	$4.5B (capex)
Free cash flow (company definition)	$17.2B	$18.1B
Diluted shares	4,174M	1,975M

Figures from each company’s July 31 Form 8-K. Chevron’s per-share number is larger because its share count is less than half of ExxonMobil’s; that is capital structure, not performance. The capital-spending lines use each company’s own definition and are not identical measures; on those figures ExxonMobil spent about 50% more in the quarter (our arithmetic). The free-cash-flow lines also use different definitions, as described above.

What did ExxonMobil do with the cash?

It returned more than half of free cash flow to shareholders. Shareholder distributions were $9.4 billion — $4.3 billion of dividends and $5.1 billion of share repurchases — against $9.2 billion in the year-ago quarter. That is about 55% of the quarter’s $17.2 billion of free cash flow (our arithmetic). The board declared a third-quarter dividend of $1.03 per share. Diluted shares averaged 4,174 million, down from 4,331 million a year earlier.

Cash capital expenditures were $6,787 million in the quarter and $12,974 million for the half, and the release reports cumulative structural cost savings of $16.3 billion against 2019, $1.2 billion of it in the first six months of 2026. Chevron, by contrast, reduced its debt by a record $8.4 billion in the same quarter while returning about $6.6 billion in dividends and buybacks (our arithmetic: $3,504 million plus $3,117 million); the two companies made different choices with similar operating cash flow.

What to watch in Q3

• Timing effects reversing. ExxonMobil says timing effects unwind in subsequent periods. The second quarter booked $2.48 billion of favorable effects in GAAP earnings; if ExxonMobil files a third-quarter earnings-considerations 8-K on the July 7 pattern, it will give the company’s own range before results.
• Energy Products against $4,099 million adjusted. The indicative refining margin of $29.0 a barrel was well above prior quarters. The next print shows how much of the segment’s tripling was margin.
• Upstream volumes against 4,514 koebd. The Middle East disruptions cut production; the release reports the fifth Guyana FPSO set sail with startup “on plan for 4Q26,” adding 250 thousand barrels a day of capacity.
• Financial reserves. The 10-Q expects third-quarter earnings impacts from the Louisiana settlement to be immaterial; any further reserve additions would show up as identified items.
• Distributions against $9.4 billion a quarter, and whether the pace holds if margins fall.

Quick answers

How much did ExxonMobil earn in Q2 2026?

Earnings were $14.53 billion, or $3.48 per diluted share, against $7.08 billion and $1.64 a year earlier. Adjusted earnings, which exclude identified items and timing effects, were $14.68 billion, or $3.52 per share.

Did ExxonMobil meet its own Q2 2026 guidance?

ExxonMobil does not forecast earnings, but the items it quantified in its July 7 earnings-considerations 8-K landed inside its ranges: timing effects of $2,546 million in Energy Products (flagged at $2.2 to $3.0 billion) and impairments of $1,079 million (flagged at $0.8 to $1.2 billion).

Did ExxonMobil earn more than Chevron in Q2 2026?

Yes, on reported earnings: $14.53 billion against Chevron’s $12.07 billion. Chevron’s earnings per share were higher ($6.11 against $3.48) because it has fewer than half as many shares, and the two companies’ adjusted earnings figures are defined differently.

---

Sources and method. Company figures — earnings and EPS, segment earnings, identified items and timing effects, cash flow, free cash flow, cash capex, distributions, the dividend, structural cost savings, the production and Guyana statements and the Woods quotation — are ExxonMobil’s own disclosures in Exhibit 99.1 (press release) and Exhibit 99.2 (investor relations data summary) to the Form 8-K filed 2026-07-31 (accession 0002115436-26-000006) for the quarter ended 2026-06-30, read directly from SEC EDGAR and linked above. Year-ago segment and adjusting-item figures come from Exhibit 99.2’s historical tables; year-ago cash flow, free cash flow, production and distributions come from the 2Q25 release, Form 8-K filed 2025-08-01 (accession 0000034088-25-000040). The guidance ranges come from the 2Q 2026 Earnings Considerations, Form 8-K filed 2026-07-07 (accession 0002115436-26-000003), which states it is not an estimate of earnings; where that table lists a range without naming the segment, we use the segment named in its text or sum the ranges, as shown. The indicative refining margin is a Platts benchmark as reported in Exhibit 99.2. The Upstream financial-reserve figure and the Louisiana settlement come from the Form 10-Q filed 2026-08-03 (accession 0000034088-26-000093). Chevron figures come from Chevron’s own Form 8-K of the same date (accession 0000093410-26-000162).

No consensus estimate is included, so this piece makes no claim that the quarter beat or missed expectations; the only comparisons are with the company’s own guidance and the year-ago quarter. This piece makes no claim about the share-price reaction.

Our arithmetic, labelled as such: the ~2x year-over-year earnings increase; the ~3.5x and ~1.7x sequential GAAP and adjusted multiples; the ~61% and ~26% first-half growth rates; the ~3.0x Energy Products and ~4x Chemical Products multiples; the ~$7.7 billion year-over-year adjusted-earnings increase and its ~$3.9 billion Upstream and ~$2.7 billion Energy Products contributions; the ~2.5% production decline; the ~$2.45 billion GAAP earnings gap with Chevron; the ~50% capital-spending difference; and the ~55% distribution share of free cash flow; the summed −$0.9 billion to −$2.3 billion range for other identified items; and Chevron’s ~$6.6 billion of dividends plus buybacks. These are approximations built on the disclosed figures, not reported numbers. The interpretation — that refining margins and timing effects explain most of the quarter’s change, and that the two companies’ adjusted earnings cannot be compared directly — is our analysis, not a company statement, and is not a forecast.

Related: Chevron Q2 2026, reported the same morning — record U.S. refinery throughput, downstream earnings up 6.6x, and $8.4 billion of debt repaid.

Tradune shows what you actually hold across every account, and whether a position has beaten a plain index fund since you bought it. Educational analysis, not investment advice.