Commodity trading and production giant Glencore expects to report approximately $3.3 billion in adjusted earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) for its Marketing segment in the first half of 2026, as extreme market volatility driven by the Iran war generated windfall profits for energy commodity traders.

The Switzerland-based company, one of the world's largest diversified commodity trading houses and miners, disclosed the figure in its half-year production report released on Wednesday. The Marketing segment encompasses oil trading alongside metals, minerals, and agricultural commodities. Glencore did not break down the specific contribution from energy trading but is expected to provide further detail in its full half-year earnings report scheduled for release next week.

The market volatility experienced over the past five months has placed Glencore's trading profits on a trajectory that could make 2026 its strongest year on record, should energy markets continue to experience sharp price swings in the coming months. Commodity trading houses like Glencore, along with privately held rivals such as Vitol, Trafigura, and Gunvor, typically generate outsized profits during periods of dislocation by arbitraging price differences across regions, time, and product grades — opportunities that expand materially when supply chains are disrupted by geopolitical conflict.

For context, Glencore's previous record full-year Marketing EBIT was set in 2022, when the Russian invasion of Ukraine disrupted global energy flows and pushed oil prices to $120 per barrel. The adjusted EBIT in the marketing division reached $6.4 billion that year, a 73% surge from 2021, "driven primarily by our energy departments successfully navigating the extreme market imbalances, volatility and dislocations across crude oil, LNG, refined products, coal and logistics infrastructure," Glencore stated at the time.

In 2025, Glencore booked adjusted EBIT of $2.9 billion in the Marketing segment for the full year. The first half of 2026 alone has already surpassed that total.

Integrated oil and gas majors with substantial trading operations have also benefited from the turmoil in energy markets since the onset of the Iran war. Shell, for example, expects to report significantly higher oil and LNG trading results for the second quarter, as the conflict drove extreme volatility across energy commodity markets. Shell is scheduled to release its Q2 earnings on July 30.

The Iran war has also upended global LNG markets, adding further dislocations that trading houses have sought to navigate.

By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com