Exxon, Chevron Lift Oil Production, Blunting Price Drop

Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. surpassed profit expectations as higher oil production helped offset the blow from lower crude prices. 

The titans of the US oil industry expanded output from the US Permian Basin, Guyana and other regions. For Exxon, full-year production hit a 40-year high while Chevron benefited from the integration of its $48 billion takeover of Hess Corp.

The outperformance comes as major US drillers face growing pressure to assist in the Trump administration’s aspiration to revive the Venezuelan oil sector after the ouster of strongman Nicolas Maduro.  

Chevron intends to finance a 50% increase in its Venezuelan oil production with cash from oil sales rather than committing new capital to the country, Chief Financial Officer Eimear Bonner said during an interview. 

As the only major oil explorer with ongoing operations in the South American nation, Chevron has a leg up on rivals that departed years ago during a nationalization campaign by Maduro’s predecessor, the late former leader Hugo Chavez.

Late Thursday, The Trump administration took steps to begin relaxing some of the punishing sanctions that have isolated the Venezuelan energy industry. The move gives other US companies the go-ahead to work with the state-controlled oil producer, with restrictions such as a prohibition on transactions with Chinese-tied entities.  

Exxon’s adjusted fourth-quarter net income of $1.71 a share was 2 cents higher than the average estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Chevron earned $1.52 a share, 14 cents higher than expected.

For both companies, debt ratios crept higher during the final three months of 2025. Exxon shares fell 1% at 9:35 a.m. in New York. Chevron rose 1.1%.

“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. The strategy is “creating a long runway of profitable growth through 2030 and beyond.” 

Exxon has a broader refining footprint than its peers, which enabled it to benefit from rebounding fuel-making margins at the end of 2025. On Friday, the company stuck with its $20 billion-a-year share buyback program and expects to maintain the payout at least through the end of this year under “reasonable market conditions.” 

Despite Woods’ bullish outlook, full-year profit dropped 10% to $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 $28 billion this year, down from last year’s $29 billion. 

Meanwhile, Chevron increased production by more than 20% from a year earlier to the equivalent to 4.05 million barrels a day as new supplies came online from places like Tengiz in Kazakhstan, as well as the Hess portfolio.

Still, Chevron was forced to temporarily shut the million-barrel-a-day Tengiz field in Kazakhstan this month after two fires at power generators. 

Bonner said in the interview that the majority of Tengiz’s processing capacity will be online within the next week and the massive field will be operating at “unconstrained production levels within February.” 

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 $100 billion in Venezuela’s crumbling oil sector.

Woods has recently called the country “uninvestable” without durable legal and political reform at a White House meeting earlier this month, remarks that drew Trump’s ire. 

Chevron expects more production growth this year, with output forecast to increase about 8% mostly from fields in Guyana and the Eastern Mediterranean.  

“We successfully integrated Hess, started-up major projects, delivered record production and reorganized our business,” Chevron CEO Mike Wirth said in a statement. “This resulted in industry-leading free cash flow growth and superior shareholder returns, despite declining oil prices.”

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