Glencore Swings to $4.4 Billion Half-Year Profit on Oil Volatility

Glencore swung to a $4.405 billion net profit in the first half of 2026, reversing a $655 million loss a year earlier, as war-driven volatility in energy markets handed its trading division a near-record six months. The jump of roughly $5 billion year on year came alongside a 49 percent surge in revenue to $174 billion and an 86 percent rise in adjusted EBITDA to $10.1 billion.

The trading windfall

Marketing adjusted EBIT more than doubled to $3.3 billion, a 142 percent increase the company attributed to “materially disrupted energy, freight and other markets during the period.” Last week Glencore had guided for exactly that figure, citing extreme volatility during the Iran war as the catalyst for windfall earnings across its energy desks. The first-half marketing result puts the full-year pace on track to surpass the $6.4 billion record set in 2022, when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent oil to $120 a barrel and lifted full-year marketing EBIT 73 percent. For context, the marketing division earned $2.9 billion for all of 2025.

The 2022 echo

The parallels to 2022 are explicit in the filing. Then, as now, Glencore’s energy departments “successfully navigated” dislocations across crude, LNG, refined products, coal and logistics infrastructure. The difference this time is the trigger: a regional conflict in the Middle East rather than a European land war. The mechanism, volatility creating spread and freight opportunities for a trader with physical assets and logistics reach, remains the same.

What the CEO sees next

Chief executive Gary Nagle expects volatility to remain above historical norms in the second half, albeit at lower levels than the first six months. That framing matters: it suggests the trading tailwind persists but is fading, and that the second-half marketing contribution will likely fall short of the $3.3 billion just booked. If energy markets continue to whipsaw, Glencore could still post its best full-year trading result ever. If they settle, the second half looks more like normalization than a repeat.