by Sabrina Valle
HOUSTON (Reuters) – American majors ExxonMobil and Chevron reported higher-than-expected annual profits in 2023 on Friday, benefiting from an increase in oil and gas production.
Exxon’s profit reached $36 billion (33 billion euros) last year, down 35%. This result does not include a writedown of $2.5 billion for California assets that it has been trying to sell for more than a year.
Major oil producers have moved to write down the value of unprofitable assets and clean up their balance sheets. Chevron said it was taking a write-down charge of about $4 billion in its fourth-quarter accounts, while Shell announced a write-down of $5.5 billion on Thursday.
Oil majors expect profits to fall by around a third in 2023 compared to 2022, as oil and gas prices have fallen after the price surge caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The average price of a barrel of Brent stood at $82.85 in the fourth quarter, a drop of 7% compared to the same period the previous year and 4% compared to the third quarter.
For the fourth quarter, Exxon reported a better-than-expected fourth-quarter profit of $9.96 billion, or $2.48 per share, compared to $14.04 billion, or $3.40 per share, a year earlier. .
The results reflect rising trading profits in the fuels sector and rising oil and gas production in the United States and Guyana, Kathryn Mikells, Exxon’s chief financial officer, told Reuters.
America’s second-largest oil producer, Chevron, reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of $3.45 per share on Friday, beating analysts’ forecasts by 24 cents.
Over the whole of 2023, the group’s profit fell significantly to reach $21.3 billion, a drop of almost 40%.
Chevron has been hit by delays in its expansion programs and rising costs in its oil and gas production business. In the refining sector, American margins fell sharply, even as its competitors announced results better than expected.
As a sign of confidence, Chevron, however, announced an 8% increase in its dividend.
(Reporting by Sabrina Valle, with contributions from Mrinalika Roy in Bangalore; French version Dagmarah Mackos)
©2024 Thomson Reuters, all rights reserved. Reuters content is the intellectual property of Thomson Reuters or its third party content providers. Any copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. “Reuters” and the Reuters Logo are trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies.