If Your Business Touches Energy, This Week Has Created Real Opportunity
While rising oil prices create challenges for many businesses, for companies in and around the energy sector — fuel distribution, industrial supply, logistics, refining — the current environment is generating some of the strongest financial conditions in years. Here's how to make the most of it.
+17% Viva Energy share price — single session
+8% Equinor share price this week
30% Energy stocks outperformed oil in 2025
Why energy sector businesses are in a strong position
This week, energy companies around the world saw significant gains. Australia's Viva Energy surged 17% in a single trading session. Norway's Equinor climbed 8%. BP rose 2.8% and France's TotalEnergies gained 2%. These aren't routine market moves — they reflect investors recognising that energy businesses are generating, or about to generate, meaningfully higher profits.
The underlying reason is straightforward. When global supply is disrupted — as it is now, following strikes on Qatar's gas facilities — the price of refined fuel products like petrol, diesel and jet fuel often rises faster than the cost of crude oil itself. That widens the margin between what energy businesses pay for their inputs and what they sell their outputs for. More margin means more cash.
A useful way to picture it: Imagine you run a bakery and the price of bread suddenly jumps 20% while flour only goes up 8%. Your profit per loaf just got wider — even though your costs went up too. That's the refining margin story right now, playing out across the global energy sector.
Strong cash flow is an asset — are you using it?
When your business is generating strong cash flow — as many energy and industrial sector businesses are right now — it's tempting to simply let that cash sit. But the most financially sophisticated businesses use periods of strength to do two important things: lock in better financing terms while their credit position is at its strongest, and invest in supply chain relationships that will serve them when conditions eventually tighten again.
Citi's analysts noted this week that energy stocks remain undervalued relative to the sector's actual cash generation — meaning the financial strength of many energy businesses is greater than the market is currently giving them credit for. That's a powerful position to negotiate from.
Turning your balance sheet strength into a supply chain advantage
One of the smartest moves a financially strong business can make is to use its credit position to support its supplier network through a supply chain finance program. Here's why this matters right now: your suppliers — many of whom are smaller businesses — are facing rising fuel costs and tight cash flow at exactly the moment your own financial position is strong.
By anchoring a supply chain finance program, you allow your suppliers to receive early payment at attractive rates, funded against your creditworthiness. Your suppliers stay healthy and loyal. Your supply chain stays resilient. And you often secure better pricing and more reliable delivery as a result — all without using your own cash.
