HOUSTON: Exxon Mobil Corp reported a quarterly profit that topped analysts’ estimates, pushing its shares up as oil and natural gas output rose slightly on a year-over-year basis.
The company’s fourth-quarter net income fell to $6 billion (£4.6 billion), or $1.41 a share, from $8.38 billion a year ago. But earnings excluding the impacts of tax reform and impairments rose to $6.4 billion from $3.73 billion a year ago.
Analysts had forecast a $1.08 a share profit excluding one-time items, according to data from Refinitiv.
Exxon’s oil equivalent production rose to just over 4 million barrels per day, up from 3.9 million bpd in the same period the year prior. The company said its output in the Permian Basin, the largest US shale basin, rose 90 per cent over a year ago.
Results for oil and gas production were “especially strong,” said Brian Youngberg, an analyst with Edward Jones.
“It was a good quarter to end the year. I think the focus now will be on improving the cash flow,” he said.
Exxon is not planning share buybacks this quarter, though, which makes it the only international oil company “not currently repurchasing shares,” analysts with Simmons Energy said in a client note.
The company now expects to spend $30 billion this year, up from about $28 billion it had forecast previously, and analysts at JP.
Morgan said in a client note that the higher spending “takes away from the ‘sizzle’ of the quarter.” CEO Darren Woods said Exxon would sanction liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects on the US Gulf Coast and in Mozambique this year. — Reuters
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