(Jan 30): Exxon Mobil Corp surpassed profit expectations as higher oil production and improving refining margins helped offset the blow from lower crude prices.
Adjusted fourth-quarter net income of US$1.71 a share was two cents higher than the average estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Full-year production and refining volumes hit 40-year highs as the company expanded oil and natural gas output in key regions such as the Permian Basin and Guyana.
Exxon shares surged to a record this week as investors rewarded the US oil giant for boosting production while lowering per-barrel costs at a time when European rivals are struggling to grow. That robust growth is largely due to the company’s heavy investments during the pandemic-driven market collapse, a risky strategy that was criticised by investors at the time.
“We’re capturing more value from every barrel and molecule we produce and building growth platforms at scale,” chief executive officer Darren Woods said in a statement on Friday. The strategy is “creating a long runway of profitable growth through 2030 and beyond.”
Exxon also has a broader refining footprint than its peers, helping it to benefit from the rebound in fuel-making margins at the end of 2025. The company stuck with its US$20 billion-a-year share buyback programme and expects to maintain the payout at least through the end of this year under “reasonable market conditions”.
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Despite Woods’ bullish outlook, full-year profit dropped 10% to US$30.1 billion due to lower oil prices and chemical margins as well as “growth-related costs,” the company said. Capital spending is seen around US$28 billion this year, down from last year’s US$29 billion.
Concern about a mounting global crude glut is hitting Big Oil profits at a time when US President Donald Trump is calling for the companies to invest more than US$100 billion in Venezuela’s crumbling oil sector following the capture of strongman Nicolas Maduro.
Woods called the country “uninvestable” without durable legal and political reform at a White House meeting earlier this month, remarks that drew Trump’s ire.
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The Golden Pass LNG export facility in Texas is due to come online early this year and it’s progressing a giant gas-export project in Mozambique that would become operational in the early 2030s.
Those commitments may signal that Exxon has little urgent need to invest in Venezuela, where it suffered two nationalisations in a half century. Woods has said he is open to sending a team to the country to analyse opportunities but any investments would need to be secure and meet the company’s economic criteria.
Uploaded by Evelyn Chan
