US oil producers ExxonMobil and Chevron post lower quarterly profits

The largest US oil companies, Chevron and ExxonMobil, reported lower profits in the first quarter, although Exxon beat analysts’ expectations. Chevron posted adjusted net income of 3.81 billion dollars (83.7 billion Kč), compared with 5.42 billion USD a year earlier. Exxon’s profit fell to 7.71 billion dollars from 8.22 billion USD a year earlier. The companies announced the results in their earnings releases today.

Chevron’s profit was in line with Wall Street analysts’ estimates. The company improved refining performance, which had been loss-making at the end of last year, and management expects to maintain its existing share buyback strategy despite lower oil prices on world markets. The dividend is also unchanged. Chevron CFO Eimear Bonner said the company could buy back 11.5 billion to 13 billion dollars worth of its own shares this year. That would be in line with its plan to spend between ten billion and 20 billion USD on buybacks.

Chevron is the second-largest oil producer in the United States. First-quarter earnings per share reached 2.18 USD, in line with analysts’ estimates in an LSEG survey. The company currently pays a quarterly dividend of 1.71 USD per share.

Chevron shares were rising before the results were released, but fell afterwards. Analysts said this was likely due to weaker earnings from refining and oil and gas production compared with the first quarter last year. Refining, however, improved significantly from the end of last year, when the segment reported its first loss in four years.

ExxonMobil benefited in the first quarter of this year from higher oil and gas production in Guyana and the Permian Basin. This helped the company beat expectations. Earnings per share came to 1.76 USD, while analysts had expected 1.73 USD. Exxon, the largest oil producer in the US, currently pays a quarterly dividend of 0.99 USD per share. Its shares were up by more than one percent before trading began on the New York Stock Exchange.

US light crude West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the main indicator of oil price trends in North America, is currently trading at around 59 dollars a barrel. At the end of the first quarter of this year, it was just above 70 dollars; at the end of the first quarter last year, it was above 85 dollars a barrel.