Moody’s and Fitch Ratings released new outlooks for the oil and gas sector this week and things are looking rosy. Amid the energy crisis caused by war in the Middle East, Fitch upgraded the oil and gas sector to “improving” from "neutral" on oil prices. Moody’s, meanwhile, maintained its positive outlook and expects company earnings to be even higher. Remember when the global landscape looked remarkably different? Think Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance and the Winter Olympics — February 2026. Back then, oil companies weren’t exactly in a celebratory mood. “The expectation was for oversupply so … there was an anticipation of … the crude oil price languishing in the $55- to $60-a-barrel range,” said Andrew O’Conor, corporate credit analyst at Morningstar DBRS. Instead of languishing, the war in Iran changed oil and gas markets overnight. And it wasn’t a one or two week blip either. The now-monthslong crisis has meant substantially different outlooks for companies.“In 2025, West Texas Intermediate oil prices average $65 a barrel. So far in 2026 they've averaged about $85 a barrel,” said Dan Pickering with Pickering Energy Partners.In other words?“These guys are selling a product that's gone up a third in value year over year, and so they are making a lot more money by simply doing more of the same,” he said.It's not just crude oil prices that have increased. “Across barrel, across the product suite, prices have risen,” Pickering said. Liquefied natural gas prices are up, along with jet fuel, diesel and gasoline.And North American oil producers have been especially well-positioned to benefit from all this.“They're a long ways from the conflict, and then the refiners that are located in North America are also benefiting,” said O’Conor at Morningstar. Looking ahead, it’s not just that oil and gas companies are doing well now. “We do foresee elevated prices over the next two years, without a doubt, I think that's that's pretty much baked into most forecasts at this point,” said Thomas Liles at Rystad Energy.So more cash than expected for these companies next year, too.