While most of the world is holding on to hope than the American-Israeli war against Iran can finally reaching an end amid news of a cease-fire deal, the billionaire owners of some of the world’s biggest energy companies may not be so thrilled.
A handful of just 41 energy industry barons in the Group of Seven (G7) countries collectively increased their wealth by $23.5 billion since the war began in late February, according to a REPORT issued by Oxfam International on Monday, as the leaders of the world’s largest industrialized economies meet in France this week.
of oil shocks caused by war have caused fuel prices will rise dramatically, surging inflation across the global economy and straining the pockets of ordinary people around the world.
April one REPORT BY United Nations The Development Program predicted that, as a result of the conflict, another 32 million people would be displaced poverty until the end of the year.
But between March 1 and May 18, the owners of the biggest oil and energy companies in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the US and the UK were adding an average of $300 million a day to their collective wealth, Oxfam found through an analysis of Forbes real-time billionaires list.
“Conflict destroys countries and costs countless lives, but for some it is extremely profitable,” said Oxfam International executive director Amitabh Behar. “This is a brutal system that redistributes wealth upwards – from worker to shareholders, from the poorest to the richest, from those with less power to those who already have a lot of it. As families skip meals and governments cut life-saving aid, we witness a grotesque wealth of billionaires.”
While their accumulation of wealth cannot be attributed to the war alone, Oxfam noted that The six major oil companies– Chevron, ShellBP, ConocoPhillips, Exxon and TotalEnergies—are expected to grow their profits this year by 80% over their pre-war forecast, while the average large G7 company in the sample is expected to see just 8% growth.
Global billionaires saw their wealth increase by an average of about 0.42% between March and mid-May. Over the same period, G7 billionaires in the energy industry increased their wealth by 9%, while those in oil and gas notably became nearly 11% richer.
Oxfam notes that the Iran war has only widened the gap between rich and poor that was already widening, in no small part thanks to the nations in the G7.
While the wealth of billionaires has grown by nearly $10 trillion since 2020, the G7 countries, mainly the US under President Donald Trumphave cut aid to the poorest nations by $48 billion, equivalent to what the billionaires in the G7 countries amassed for themselves in just nine days.
Meanwhile, since 2019, the last time France chaired a G7 summit, Oxfam evaluated that 44 people per minute have come in need humanitarian aidbased on 2025 data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Behar said that to ensure US participation in this week’s summit, the French president Emmanuel Macron THERE chosen at the table any discussion that might offend Trump—including the devastating cost of his war in Iran, Israel’s US-backed wars in Gaza AND Lebanonand everything related to climate crisiswhich Trump has described as “a hoax”.
“Instead of defending collective governance, Macron and his colleagues are orchestrating its destruction. This will have measured consequences in life,” he said.
Oxfam called for the G6 – all the Group of Seven member countries, excluding the US – to create a comprehensive plan to protect people from the economic upheaval caused by war and other spiraling global crises.
“The G6 cannot plead impotence,” Behar added. “They can cancel debt. They can tax windfalls and extreme wealth. . . . They can provide aid to poorer countries. Refusing to act simply because Washington we will not join them is not diplomacy – it is cowardice. And that will only accelerate the G6’s slide into global prominence.”
