BP reported underlying first-quarter profits of $3.2 billion, more than double the $1.38 billion it made in the same period last year. The company attributed its highest quarterly profit since 2023 to exceptional oil trading.

BP was the first of the major oil companies to report earnings since the war in Iran began. According to the International Energy Agency, the global energy market faced its greatest supply crisis in history after Iran seized control of the Strait of Hormuz and throttled exports. About 20% of the world's oil typically passes through the strait, which has been effectively blocked since the war began in late February.

The international benchmark oil price reached a high of $119.50 a barrel in March before a record release of emergency stockpiles cooled the market. The price of Brent crude rose 3% on Tuesday to about $111 a barrel, its highest level since 7 April. A barrel of Brent crude that cost about $73 before the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran was trading for more than $104 on Tuesday. Drone attacks damaged BP's Rumaila oilfield in southern Iraq.

Gasoline prices in the U.S. hit multiyear highs on the same day BP reported its first-quarter profits. Household energy bills in the U.K. are forecast to reach nearly £2,000 a year from July when the next quarterly price cap for gas and electricity takes effect.

Patrick Galey, head of investigations at Global Witness, said: "It is horrifying to see BP's profits grow as millions suffer the fallout from the US-Israel war on Iran. Unfortunately, we've been here before – when Russia invaded Ukraine four years ago we saw big oil firms make bumper profits from spiralling fuel costs."

Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said: "These astronomical profits are a startling reminder that when conflict drives up the price of oil and gas, energy companies profit and households pay."

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband defended the government's windfall tax. "It would be completely wrong for a government to stand by and allow companies to make excess profits from a war. That's why we're taxing these windfall profits to help with the cost of living. And why the Tories, Reform and the SNP are utterly wrong to oppose the windfall tax," he said.