ExxonMobil’s earnings hit by lower commodity prices

Oil and gas major ExxonMobil reported on Friday that its earnings declined by 38 percent during the third quarter of 2016 when compared to those in the same period of 2015. 

Namely, ExxonMobil’s third quarter 2016 earnings totaled $2.7 billion, compared with $4.2 billion a year earlier. The company said these results reflect lower refining margins and commodity prices.

During the quarter, Upstream earnings were $620 million, down $738 million from the third quarter of 2015. Volumes for the quarter declined 3 percent to 3.8 million oil-equivalent barrels per day compared with a year ago, due to unplanned downtime, primarily in Nigeria, and field decline partially offset by increased production from recent project start-ups.

Revenues during the quarter also slipped totaling $58.68 billion in 3Q 2016 versus $67.3 billion in 3Q 2015.

The company also said that its capital and exploration expenditures during the 2016 quarter were reduced by 45 percent amounting to $4.2 billion as opposed to $7.7 billion in the last year’s corresponding quarter.

In light of continued weakness in the upstream industry environment during 2016, and as part of its annual planning and budgeting process which is currently in progress, ExxonMobil stated it will perform an assessment of its major long-lived assets.

Recently, ExxonMobil completed drilling of the Liza-3 well offshore Guyana confirming a ‘world-class’ resource discovery in excess of 1 billion oil-equivalent barrels. In addition, the Owowo-3 exploration well, located offshore Nigeria, confirmed a discovery of 500 million to 1 billion barrels of oil.

Offshore Enegy Today Staff