Higher Oil prices drove increased profits for US Oil giant ExxonMobil, but the earnings report yesterday missed analyst expectations due to natural gas outages and refining downtime.
Net income jumped 18% in the second quarter to $4bn compared to the same period a year earlier.
That translated into 92 cents a share, well below the $1.27 expected by analysts. Revenues rose 26.6% to $73.5bn, the company announced.
The results follow jumps in profits for Royal Dutch Shell and Total reported on Thursday and illustrate the bounce from oil prices.
Crude mostly traded in a range of $65 to $75 a barrel during the quarter, up from the $45 to $50 range in the year-ago period.
But ExxonMobil reported another significant slide in oil and gas production, which dipped 7% to 3.6mn barrels a day of oil-equivalent. The company said natural gas output was especially weak, diving 10%.
Downtime in refining also hit results, due mostly to an unusually high number of planned refining outages at various plants and some unplanned maintenance following incidents at facilities in the first quarter, the company said. ExxonMobil shares slumped 4.0% to $80.84 in pre-market trading.
Chevron
US oil and natural gas producer Chevron Corp posted a lower-than-expected quarterly profit yesterday and executives launched a long-awaited $3bn share buyback programme.
Shares of the San Ramon, California-based company fell 2.4% to $121 in pre-market trading.
The company posted second-quarter net income of $3.41bn, or $1.78 per share, compared to $1.45bn, or 77 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.
Analysts expected earnings of $2.09 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Chevron’s expenses rose about 15% during the quarter to $37.33bn.
Production rose about 2% to 2.83mn barrels of oil equivalent per day. “Results in 2018 benefited from higher crude oil prices, strong operations and higher production,” chief executive Mike Wirth said in a press release.
