Chevron 1Q Profit Drops to $6.2 Bln. Production Rises

Chevron Corporation, a California-based oil and gas company today reported earnings of $6.2 billion for the first quarter 2013, compared with $6.5 billion in the 2012 first quarter.

Sales and other operating revenues in the first quarter 2013 were $54 billion, down from $59 billion in the year-ago period, mainly due to lower prices for crude oil.

“Our first quarter earnings were strong,” said Chairman and CEO John Watson. “Our consistent financial performance has enabled us to significantly increase the dividend again, and fund major development projects that are the foundation of the company’s future growth in production, earnings and cash flows.”

“Our key development projects remain on track,” Watson added. “Construction is progressing well on the Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG projects in Australia. Important milestones have been reached recently for our Jack/St. Malo and Big Foot deepwater projects in the Gulf of Mexico, and both remain on schedule for start-up in 2014.”

Worldwide net oil-equivalent production was 2.65 million barrels per day in the first quarter 2013, up from 2.63 million barrels per day in the 2012 first quarter. Production increases from project ramp-ups in the United States and Nigeria were largely offset by normal field declines.

Net oil-equivalent production of 664,000 barrels per day in the first quarter 2013 increased 13,000 barrels per day, or 2 percent, from a year earlier. The increase in production was primarily due to further ramp-up of projects in the Gulf of Mexico, the Marcellus Shale in western Pennsylvania and the recently-acquired Delaware Basin properties in New Mexico, partially offset by normal field declines. The net liquids component of oil-equivalent production was largely unchanged in the 2013 first quarter at 455,000 barrels per day, while net natural gas production increased 7 percent to 1.26 billion cubic feet per day.

Capex

Capital and exploratory expenditures in the first three months of 2013 were $8.9 billion, compared with $6.4 billion in the corresponding 2012 period. The amounts included approximately $453 million in 2013 and $361 million in 2012 for the company’s share of expenditures by affiliates, which did not require cash outlays by the company. Also included were amounts related to the acquisition of interests in the Kitimat LNG project in western Canada. Expenditures for upstream represented 93 percent of the companywide total in the first three months 2013.