Economic news

Exxon’s $8.6 billion profit beats as volume offsets price weakness

2024.11.01 07:04

HOUSTON (Reuters) -Exxon Mobil on Friday beat Wall Street’s third quarter profit estimate, boosted by strong oil output in its first full quarter that includes volumes from U.S. shale producer Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:).

Oil industry earnings have been squeezed this year by slowing demand and weak margins on gasoline and diesel. But Exxon (NYSE:)’s year-over-year profit fell 5%, a much smaller drop than at rivals BP (NYSE:) and TotalEnergies (EPA:), which posted sharply lower quarterly results.

The U.S. oil producer reported income of $8.61 billion, down from $9.07 billion a year ago. Its $1.92 per share profit topped Wall Street’s outlook of $1.88 per share, on higher oil and gas production and spending constraints.

“We had a number of production records” in the quarter, said finance chief Kathryn Mikells, citing an about 25% year-on-year increase in oil and gas output, to 4.6 million barrels per day.

Exxon shares rose about 1.9% in premarket trading to $119 per share.

Exxon earlier this month had flagged operating profit likely fell, leading Wall Street analysts to shave their quarterly per share earnings outlook by nearly a dime.

The results included Exxon’s first full quarter of production following its acquisition in May of Pioneer Natural Resources. The $60 billion deal drove production in the top U.S. shale basin to nearly 1.4 million barrels per day of oil and gas, helping overcome a 17% decline in average oil prices in the quarter ended Sept. 30.

Exxon disclosed it raised its quarterly dividend by 4% after generating free cash flow of $11.3 billion, well above analysts’ estimates. Rivals Saudi Aramco (TADAWUL:) and Chevron (NYSE:) have had to borrow this year to cover shareholder returns after boosting dividends and buybacks to attract investors.

Exxon did not provide a fourth quarter outlook, but said it plans to provide investors with a revised production forecast next month. OPEC in December may add 180,000 barrels per day of additional supply to a market with an uncertain demand outlook.

The market is worried about oil supply outrunning demand. Prices slumped over the summer and remain about 12% below June’s average.

Exxon’s earnings from producing gasoline and diesel were $1.3 billion, down from $2.44 billion in the same quarter a year ago as weak margins and a refinery outage pummeled fuel results.

An Illinois refinery went offline for nearly a month during the quarter, a shutdown that analysts estimate hit operating profits by about $250 million.

“Refining margins definitely came down in the quarter. If you look at overall results for the refining business, we feel pretty good,” said Exxon’s Mikells. Per unit refining margins since 2019 have about doubled on a constant margin basis, she said.

© Reuters. An aerial view of Exxon Mobil’s Beaumont oil refinery, which produces and packages Mobil 1 synthetic motor oil, in Beaumont, Texas, U.S., March 18, 2023. REUTERS/Bing Guan/File Photo

Profits from Exxon’s chemical business, which has been pressured by industry overcapacity for two years, rose in the quarter to $893 million, compared to $249 million a year ago, on a slight increase in margins.

“We are in a much better position (in chemicals) because we have a strong Gulf Coast footprint that benefits from Gulf Coast () prices,” said CFO Mikells.



Source link

Related Articles

Back to top button
bitcoin
Bitcoin (BTC) $ 70,915.00 0.56%
ethereum
Ethereum (ETH) $ 2,563.15 1.56%
tether
Tether (USDT) $ 1.00 0.25%
bnb
BNB (BNB) $ 584.62 0.47%
solana
Solana (SOL) $ 172.21 0.01%
usd-coin
USDC (USDC) $ 1.00 0.40%
xrp
XRP (XRP) $ 0.520466 1.25%
staked-ether
Lido Staked Ether (STETH) $ 2,558.20 1.75%
dogecoin
Dogecoin (DOGE) $ 0.166635 0.45%
tron
TRON (TRX) $ 0.16815 0.56%
cardano
Cardano (ADA) $ 0.357216 0.50%
the-open-network
Toncoin (TON) $ 4.93 1.27%
wrapped-steth
Wrapped stETH (WSTETH) $ 3,010.67 2.58%
shiba-inu
Shiba Inu (SHIB) $ 0.000018 4.40%
avalanche-2
Avalanche (AVAX) $ 25.55 0.37%
wrapped-bitcoin
Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) $ 70,620.92 0.97%
weth
WETH (WETH) $ 2,563.80 1.55%
chainlink
Chainlink (LINK) $ 11.48 4.40%
bitcoin-cash
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 357.37 3.40%
sui
Sui (SUI) $ 2.07 3.21%
leo-token
LEO Token (LEO) $ 6.12 0.14%
polkadot
Polkadot (DOT) $ 3.95 2.22%
usds
USDS (USDS) $ 0.997797 0.51%
litecoin
Litecoin (LTC) $ 70.53 1.08%
near
NEAR Protocol (NEAR) $ 4.08 2.22%
aptos
Aptos (APT) $ 9.22 0.84%
uniswap
Uniswap (UNI) $ 7.94 1.82%
wrapped-eeth
Wrapped eETH (WEETH) $ 2,693.45 1.64%
pepe
Pepe (PEPE) $ 0.000009 1.07%
internet-computer
Internet Computer (ICP) $ 7.98 0.83%
bittensor
Bittensor (TAO) $ 475.63 1.24%
fetch-ai
Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET) $ 1.29 1.12%
dai
Dai (DAI) $ 1.00 0.44%
kaspa
Kaspa (KAS) $ 0.11969 4.47%
monero
Monero (XMR) $ 160.03 1.03%
ethereum-classic
Ethereum Classic (ETC) $ 18.76 2.03%
stellar
Stellar (XLM) $ 0.093739 1.01%
ethena-usde
Ethena USDe (USDE) $ 1.00 0.32%
whitebit
WhiteBIT Coin (WBT) $ 19.03 1.57%
first-digital-usd
First Digital USD (FDUSD) $ 1.00 1.24%
polygon-ecosystem-token
POL (ex-MATIC) (POL) $ 0.323918 0.19%
blockstack
Stacks (STX) $ 1.63 4.33%
dogwifcoin
dogwifhat (WIF) $ 2.39 5.81%
okb
OKB (OKB) $ 38.52 0.75%
aave
Aave (AAVE) $ 146.05 1.60%
arbitrum
Arbitrum (ARB) $ 0.541587 0.98%
filecoin
Filecoin (FIL) $ 3.56 1.80%
optimism
Optimism (OP) $ 1.63 1.61%
crypto-com-chain
Cronos (CRO) $ 0.074156 0.23%
mantle
Mantle (MNT) $ 0.588656 1.68%