Amadi Chigozie Lagos
Exxon Mobil at the weekend posted a better-than-expected $36 billion profit for 2023, lifted by fuels trading and higher oil and gas production, Reuters reported.
Oil majors are expected to report 2023 profits down by about a third from record levels in 2022, as oil and gas prices retreated from the peaks that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Exxon results included a $2.5 billion impairment charge for California properties that it has been trying to sell for more than a year. Excluding that charge, annual income fell 35 per cent to $38.57 billion.
Top oil producers are writing off unwanted assets and cleaning up their balance sheets ahead of pending deals. Chevron has said it would take an about $4 billion impairment in the fourth quarter, while Shell last Thursday took a $5.5 billion write-down.
Brent crude futures in the fourth quarter averaged $82.85 a barrel, a 7 per cent decrease compared to the same period last year and a 4 per cent decline from the third quarter.
For the fourth quarter, Exxon reported a better-than-expected profit of $9.96 billion, or $2.48 per share, compared to $14.04 billion, or $3.40 per share, a year earlier.
The results were driven by higher trading profits in its fuels business and increased oil and gas production in the US and Guyana, Chief Financial Officer, Kathryn Mikells, told Reuters.
Fourth-quarter results were helped by Exxon’s trading division, which delivered a $1.1 billion boost to operating profit from its fuels business.
“That is definitely something that we would expect to see on an ongoing basis embedded in our results,” Mikells said. Gains came from revising how its specifies and moves fuels, she added.
