|
ChevronTexaco slips to $904 million loss on Dynegy chargeoffs Even without the special charges, third quarter operating earnings slid 28 percent; weak refining cuts into operating income Allen Baker PNA Contributing Writer
ChevronTexaco posted a loss of $904 million for the third quarter as the big company took a major charge for the sinking value of its stake in Dynegy Inc.
ChevronTexaco earned $1.27 billion a year ago and $407 million in the second quarter of this year, when the company also took a major Dynegy writeoff.
Even without the special charges in this year’s third quarter, operating earnings slid 28 percent to $1.24 billion from $1.71 billion a year earlier. That came on lower margins in refining and marketing.
In the third quarter of 2001, the big San Francisco-based company made $589 million from downstream activities. In the latest quarter, that figure was just $92 million.
The weakness was domestic and international, and in both areas the company took big charges to cut the book value of assets and account for environmental remediation. With those charges, the segment ended up with a loss of $158 million.
Refinery throughput declined 12 percent to 2,115,000 barrels daily.
E&P keeps pace Exploration and production kept pace with the year-earlier operating earnings, bringing in $1.29 billion in both periods. But again there were big writedowns, this time on the value of reserves. Those writedowns sliced $366 million for the segment as a whole.
Liquids production slipped 3 percent to 1,848,000 barrels a day, while gas production rose 2 percent to 4,280 million cubic feet a day.
On an oil-equivalent basis, production was down 49,000 barrels daily. Chairman and CEO Dave O’Reilly said the production would have instead increased by 45,000 barrels a day but for the Gulf storms; production disruptions in Angola, Nigeria and the North Sea; and OPEC production quotas.
Liquids brought an average of $23.33 a barrel in the United States, up 7 percent, while oil from international operations sold for $25.01, an 8 percent rise. U.S. natural gas brought $2.77 per thousand cubic feet, up 6 percent, while the international gas price was flat at $2.06.
The chemicals segment contributed $22 million in the quarter, compared with a $5 million loss a year ago.
Revenues slipped 2 percent for the quarter to $25.4 billion from $26.0 billion a year ago. Revenues in the second quarter were $25.3 billion.
| 