HOME PAGE SUBSCRIPTIONS, Print Editions, Newsletter PRODUCTS READ THE PETROLEUM NEWS ARCHIVE! ADVERTISING INFORMATION EVENTS

Providing coverage of Alaska and northern Canada's oil and gas industry
August 2017

Vol. 22, No. 33 Week of August 13, 2017

Exxon 2Q profit doubles from a year ago

Associated Press

Exxon Mobil Corp. cut spending on oil exploration, helping boost earnings to $3.35 billion in the second quarter, doubling its historically low profit of a year ago.

Profit rose for both production of oil and gas and Exxon’s refining business. The results, however, still fell short of Wall Street expectations.

Crude prices are currently trading at about $49 a barrel, up about 18 percent from a year ago, helping to boost the finances of Exxon and other oil and gas companies.

The Irving, Texas-based oil giant said July 28 that it earned 78 cents per share, which was not adjusted for one-time items such as asset sales. Nine analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research expected 83 cents per share on average.

Revenue rose 9 percent to $62.88 billion, beating the $61.16 billion forecast of four analysts in the Zacks survey.

Exxon said higher prices it got for oil and gas helped offset a 1 percent decline in production of oil and gas.

Exxon’s exploration and production side earned $1.2 billion, an increase of $890 million from a year ago, despite a narrow loss in U.S. production. That profit matched the amount that Exxon slashed from capital and exploration, a 24 percent reduction from a year earlier.

The company posted a $1.4 billion profit from refining and selling petroleum products, up $560 million from a year earlier on higher margins.

Chairman and CEO Darren Woods said in a statement that the results were driven by higher commodity prices and “a continued focus on operations and business fundamentals.”

While cutting exploration spending, Exxon is pushing ahead with drilling off the coast of Guyana in South America, with production expected to begin by 2020. The company has said that test wells hit high-quality oil reservoirs.

At home, the company is under investigation by state officials, who accuse it of misleading the public about oil’s role in climate change. In May, shareholders voted to ask the company for a report on how climate change will affect the oil and gas business.

The week of July 17 the Treasury Department fined Exxon for violating sanctions against Russia during Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s tenure as CEO by signing contracts with a Russian oil mogul who was on a U.S. blacklist. Exxon went to court to challenge the fine.

In trading before July 28’s opening bell, the shares were down $1.42 to $79.40. At the July 27 close, the shares had dropped 10 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 11 percent.





Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistrubuted.

Petroleum News - Phone: 1-907 522-9469 - Fax: 1-907 522-9583
[email protected] --- http://www.petroleumnews.com ---
S U B S C R I B E

Copyright Petroleum Newspapers of Alaska, LLC (Petroleum News)(PNA)©2013 All rights reserved. The content of this article and web site may not be copied, replaced, distributed, published, displayed or transferred in any form or by any means except with the prior written permission of Petroleum Newspapers of Alaska, LLC (Petroleum News)(PNA). Copyright infringement is a violation of federal law subject to criminal and civil penalties.