American energy giants post record quarterly earnings

USA

WASHINGTON D.C., May 1, 2023 – ExxonMobil and Chevron have both posted record quarterly earnings for Q1 2023, the two American energy giants announced on Friday.

ExxonMobil recorded USD 11.4 billion in quarterly earnings, a significant increase from USD 5.48 billion earned in the same quarter in 2022 and a slight decrease from the previous quarter of USD 11.5 billion.

The company identified one-time adjustments due to expropriation of the Russian Sakhalin-1 project as a cause for the decrease in earnings. In October 2022, the Russian government transferred operations of the development to a local operator.

ExxonMobil produced an average of 3.83 million bopd in Q1 2023, the highest output since 2019 and a rise of 160,000 bopd from Q4 2022 due to heightened output from its assets on the USA’s Permian Basin and its offshore projects in Guyana.

The energy giant also announced that it had lowered its greenhouse gas emissions by more than 10% and methane emissions by more than 50% from its 2016 base line.

“We delivered a first-quarter record despite the fact that energy prices and refining margins are softening a bit,” said Kathryn Mikells, CFO of ExxonMobil.

Similarly, counterpart Chevron announced record adjusted earnings of USD 6.7 billion for the quarter, up from USD 6.5 billion in the same quarter in 2022.

Although the company saw its upstream earnings decrease by 25.6% from its Q1 2022 earnings, profits were offset by a significant 444% increase in downstream earnings from the same quarter in the previous year.

“The company’s return on capital employed has been greater than 12% for seven consecutive quarters, and the company returned USD 6.6 billion to shareholders in the first quarter, an increase of 65% from last year,” said Mike Wirth, chairman and CEO of Chevron.

Additionally, capital spending increased by 55% from the same quarter in 2022, with the bulk of investments made in its US operations.

Chevron’s total production dropped 3% from the previous quarter in 2022, totaling 2.98 million boepd. The company cited a contract expiration in Thailand and the sale of its South Texas shale assets as the cause.

Earnings from both companies were offset by a drop in Brent oil prices by around 16% from the previous quarter and higher taxes in the European energy sector.

On Thursday, French energy giant TotalEnergies posted adjusted profits of USD 6.5 billion for the same quarter.