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Norway’s state oil company almost doubled its quarterly profits as the US-Israeli war on Iran choked off supplies from the Gulf and sent oil and gas prices soaring, allowing it to offer more cash to shareholders while cutting back on renewables.

Equinor reported adjusted earnings before tax of $11.48bn (£8.6bn) for the three months to the end of June, up from $6.54bn in the same period last year, slightly ahead of the $11.37bn average forecast in a poll of 17 analysts compiled by the company.

The quarter covered the most disruptive period for global oil supply in years as attacks on shipping cut traffic through the Strait of Hormuz – the channel between Iran and Oman that carried about a fifth of the world's oil before the war – to a fraction.

With Gulf exports curtailed, buyers turned to suppliers outside the region and Brent crude swung between $75 and more than $100 a barrel over the three months, against $60 to $70 in the same period last year.

Equinor, which supplies oil and gas to Europe, was among the main beneficiaries. The average price it received for its oil reached $97.90 a barrel in the second quarter as against $63 a year earlier, while the price for its European gas rose 32 per cent to $15.79 per million British thermal units. Its US gas price, meanwhile, fell 16 per cent to $2.30.

Production volumes rose 3 per cent in the same quarter last year and the company held to its full-year target of 3 per cent output growth and its planned investment of $13bn.

"Strong production in the second quarter enabled us to capture value from higher prices, contributing to strong cash flow and financial results," Anders Opedal, Equinor's president and chief executive, said in a statement.

The Stavanger-based company said last month that it would return $3bn to investors through share buybacks over the course of 2026, twice the amount previously planned, while reducing spending on renewable energy because of weak demand, according to Reuters. Buybacks are a means of returning cash to shareholders alongside dividends.

The company’s trading and refining arm, which buys and sells energy on world markets, made $777m in the quarter, more than the $623m analysts had expected and nearly double its own guidance of $400m, while adjusted net profit reached $3.44bn as against an average forecast of $3.36bn, Bloomberg noted.

The Hywind Tampen floating offshore wind farm is situated between energy company Equinor's oil and gas fields (AFP/Getty)

Equinor's shares have risen 54 per cent since the start of the year, outstripping a 30 per cent gain across European energy stocks, according to Reuters.

The disruption has continued into the current quarter. Brent crude traded around $93 a barrel on Wednesday, its highest in six weeks, after the US military carried out an 11th consecutive night of strikes on Iran and Yemen's Houthi government announced a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia, closing off the Red Sea pipeline route the kingdom had been using to bypass Hormuz for a some of its exports.

The latest strikes, and Iran’s retaliation against US military installations in the region, further weakened any hope that the interim ceasefire signed last month could be salvaged.

Equinor is the UK’s largest single supplier of gas, delivering about a quarter of the country's imports through pipelines from the Norwegian continental shelf at a time when British households face high energy bills due to the supply disruption caused by the Russian war against Ukraine.

The Norwegian company is seeking approval to develop the Rosebank oilfield west of Shetland, the largest undeveloped field in British waters, in partnership with Ithaca Energy.

The project was granted consent in 2023, but a Scottish court ruled the approval unlawful last year because it failed to account for the emissions produced when the extracted oil was burned. The two companies have since resubmitted their plans.

Oil companies across Europe are expected to report sharply higher earnings for the quarter, with Shell, BP and Total Energies due to publish results in the coming weeks.