(Bloomberg) – ExxonMobil said lower oil prices reduced fourth-quarter results by $800 million to $1.2 billion, one of the first signs that oil majors are facing a tough earnings season.
ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods
Wider fuel-making margins partially offset the slump in oil profits by as much as $700 million, the Spring, Texas-based company said in a statement Wednesday. Lower chemical margins and asset writedowns were a drag on profits.
Exxon is the first of the oil supermajors to report quarterly guidance just weeks before the reporting season is scheduled to kick off. The international crude benchmark last year posted its worst annual performance in half a decade amid a looming global oversupply of crude.
The price slump prices come as U.S. President Donald Trump urges Exxon, along with rivals Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips, to invest billions of dollars to revive the Venezuelan oil industry after the ouster of Nicolas Maduro this past weekend. Company executives are due to meet with White House officials on Friday to discuss the situation.
Exxon flagged that asset sales added roughly $800 million to quarterly earnings on a sequential basis.
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