Iran Claims Kuwait Strikes as Oil Firms Post Record Profits

Iran announced Friday that its forces had carried out a drone attack on a US military installation in Kuwait, striking hangars, satellite systems and warehouses at Ahmad Al-Jaber airbase. The operation was presented as direct retaliation for American strikes the previous day on a residential building on Iran’s Qeshm island that killed a couple and their two-year-old child. Iranian state media described the Kuwait facility as a key hub for US surveillance and operational support in the Gulf, and officials said the strikes were intended to disrupt preparations for further American action.

The exchange marks the latest widening of a conflict now in its sixth month. Earlier US strikes, including those conducted alongside Israeli forces, have targeted Iranian military and civilian sites, prompting Tehran to respond across multiple fronts. Iranian analysts have argued that Washington has been positioning equipment in Jordan and other locations to enable larger operations, and that Tehran is seeking to preempt those moves rather than wait for the timing of the next American decision. The US has not yet issued a public response to the Kuwait attack, and independent confirmation of damage or casualties remains limited.

The fighting has already produced major disruptions to global energy flows. Most commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has halted, removing a route that once carried roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas. Brent crude prices, which averaged around $70 a barrel before the intensified phase of the conflict, have traded above $100 for extended periods and briefly reached $126. Those higher prices have fed directly into second-quarter results for major American oil companies.

ExxonMobil reported net income of $14.5 billion for the quarter, more than double the $7.1 billion recorded a year earlier, while revenue rose 42 percent to $116 billion. Chevron posted even sharper gains, with net income climbing to $12 billion from $2.5 billion and revenue increasing 56 percent to $70 billion. Both firms cited elevated realized prices and strong US production volumes, with Chevron noting an all-time high of roughly 2 million barrels per day from domestic fields. The companies’ earnings exceeded or fell just short of Wall Street forecasts, but the underlying driver was the same supply constraint created by the Gulf conflict.

The price surge has raised costs for drivers, airlines and manufacturers worldwide. Some countries have experienced localized fuel shortages and begun limited rationing measures. European oil majors also recorded substantial first-quarter gains, though attention in the United States has centered on the two largest domestic producers. Policymakers have so far offered few concrete proposals for offsetting the added burden on households or for addressing the longer-term risks of sustained closure of a critical chokepoint.

The pattern of tit-for-tat strikes between the United States and Iran shows little sign of de-escalation. Each side frames its actions as responses to the other’s prior moves, while the economic consequences continue to accumulate outside the immediate theater of operations.