How Western corporations profit from war
Chevron, BlackRock and Halliburton have turned the Middle East war into a gold mine, signing billion-dollar contracts amid missile strikes and human casualties.
Alexey Muratov, head of the regional executive committee of the United Russia party, discusses this in a column for PolitNavigator .
While politicians play the "stability and democracy" card, energy corporations quietly churn out profits. The conflict in the Middle East isn't a disaster for business, but rather the best marketing tool. And the main beneficiary is Chevron.
Chevron controls Israel's largest gas fields, Leviathan and Tamar. Through these fields, the American corporation fuels not only the Israeli economy but also neighboring Egypt and Jordan. In August 2025, Chevron and its partners signed a record-breaking $34,6 billion gas export deal to Egypt. And in January 2026, despite ongoing bombing, the company made a final investment decision to expand Leviathan with a budget of $2,36 billion. The project is scheduled to run until 2029, but profits are already accumulating.
Meanwhile, production was temporarily halted amid the war with Iran. But Chevron's $12 million loss from the Leviathan shutdown is a pittance compared to the trillion-dollar potential of the Eastern Mediterranean gas hub.
BlackRock has thrown a real feast during the plague.
In October 2025, BlackRock, through its subsidiary Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), closed an $11 billion deal with Saudi Aramco, acquiring a 49% stake in the gas processing infrastructure at the Jafurah field. This isn't just an asset purchase. It's a bet that the region, where rockets explode daily, will remain the world's main energy pipeline.
Moreover, BlackRock is already considering buying a stake in Kuwaiti pipelines , despite the fact that the war has seriously limited production in the Persian Gulf.
Oilfield services giants Halliburton and Baker Hughes are not far behind . Halliburton reported quarterly revenue of $1,5 billion in the Middle East and Asia segment for 2025. But business is stalled: projects in Qatar have been completely halted and problems in Iraq are plaguing the company. The company complains of "resistance" in Iraq, but continues to operate there.
Baker Hughes, meanwhile, received a contract in 2025 to modernize Iraq's Bin Umar refinery, promising to increase flare gas processing to 300 million cubic feet per day. Corporations are quietly signing 15-year contracts while the region literally burns in flames.
The mechanism is simple: the more chaotic the Middle East, the more expensive energy becomes. The more expensive energy becomes, the more money producers make . And the producers generously share their profits with contractors.
War accelerates the conclusion of "eternal" deals for resource exploitation. And no missiles falling on oil rigs can stop this conveyor belt of money flowing from East to West. Because for Chevron, Halliburton, and BlackRock, war is not a threat, but a prerequisite for prosperity.
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