For oil and gas companies, it has been a profitable war.

The energy shock caused by the conflict in Iran, missile attacks on oil and gas facilities in the Persian Gulf and, most crucially, the halt on shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz have produced a spectacular bonanza as energy prices have soared.

The British oil giant BP, citing an “exceptional” performance, more than doubled its profits in the first three months of this year over last. TotalEnergies, based in Paris, raised its dividends and doubled its share buybacks after announcing $5.4 billion in net profits for the first quarter.

Around the world, the bumper returns have revived calls for taxes on oil and gas companies’ sudden jackpots.

Finance ministers from Austria, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain, as well as a raft of advocacy groups like Oxfam and the World Wildlife Federation, have asked the European Commission to tax excessive profits.

In a letter sent jointly to the European Union’s climate commissioner, the finance ministers wrote that a tax would “send a clear message that those who profit from the consequences of war must do their part to ease the burden on the general public.”

The spike in prices has also prompted Australian lawmakers to discuss raising the tax on the country’s offshore deposits of oil and gas.

The contrast between companies’ exceptional gains and the exceptional pain that soaring oil and gas prices are causing is stark.

The debate over such a tax, though, involves difficult and complex questions. What is the best way to ease the economic strain on struggling households and businesses during an energy shock, while continuing to promote energy investment and combat climate change? How should gains and hardships from global developments be shared equitably between citizens and investors?

The idea behind a tax on windfall profits is that the unusual gains are a result not of any business acumen, hard work or investment decisions, but of unpredictable events.

The last time a war triggered a global energy crisis and prompted calls for a windfall profits tax was in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine. That year, the world’s oil and gas suppliers more than doubled their net income compared with 2021.

Then, the industry’s extraordinary returns caused most members of the European Union to introduce a temporary tax on “surplus profits” and use the money to reduce consumers’ energy bills.

Britain, under a conservative government, also enacted a special “Energy Price Levy” of 38 percent on excess profits that is still in effect.

In the United States, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. called for an end to “war profiteering” and threatened to impose a new windfall profits tax on oil and gas companies unless they expanded production or reduced prices, though no legislation passed.

The prospect of a windfall tax sends chills through the industry. In 2022, Exxon Mobil sued to try to block the European Union’s temporary windfall tax. This week, BP’s new chief executive, Meg O’Neill, said a broader windfall tax would be a “highly flawed response” to the war in Iran.

Tax Foundation Europe, a research organization that tends to oppose tax increases, has also criticized the resurgent interest in windfall profit taxes, arguing they discourage investment, which in turn reduces supply and raises prices.

Policymakers are caught between competing goals. They want more tax revenue to give consumers and businesses a break from crushing prices while simultaneously pushing them to use less energy.

They also want to quickly increase the supply of oil and gas to ease fuel shortages, while aiming to phase out fossil fuels in the long run to slow devastating climate change.

Creating an effective tax is challenging. The European Union raised $26 billion between 2022 and 2024 from the temporary windfall tax, way below expectations.

The French economist Gabriel Zucman said France had raised 69 million euros instead of an estimated €3 billion. Why? Because companies shifted profits either to offshore tax havens or to countries where the oil was produced instead of where it was refined or consumed.

Britain’s energy levy raised $3.5 billion in the 2022-23 fiscal year, $4.86 billion in 2023-24 and $3.92 billion in 2024-25 from energy extracted within the country. But the tax does not apply to overseas profits, so most of the billions earned from oil trading during the war in Iran would be exempted.

One answer, Mr. Zucman said, is to tax global windfall profits, which would end the loopholes, and then redistribute the revenues to households in a lump sum. He pointed to the annual check that Alaskans receive from their state’s Permanent Fund, which is supplied by oil and mining revenue.

The United States has not been hit as hard by energy price increases as countries in Asia and Europe, but gasoline prices this week hit a new peak since the start of the war. The increase has raised the cost for drivers 44 percent, according to the AAA motor club.

Democratic lawmakers and dozens of environmental and advocacy groups have called for a windfall profits tax, but the prospect of action is unlikely.

President Trump has courted the oil and gas industry. While campaigning in 2024, he promised energy executives supersized returns if they raised $1 billion to help him win the election.

When oil prices started climbing in March, the president celebrated.

“The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social, “so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money.”