U.S. supermajors ExxonMobil and Chevron reported on Friday strong earnings for the first quarter as oil and gas prices surged after Russia invaded Ukraine.
ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) doubled its earnings to $5.5 billion for Q1 compared to the same period of last year, despite a $3.4 billion after-tax charge related to its decision to exit the Russia Sakhalin-1 project.
Still, Exxon's earnings per share, excluding identified items of $2.07, missed the consensus estimate in The Wall Street Journal of $2.23.
Earnings excluding identified items stood at $8.8 billion, an increase of more than $6 billion versus the first quarter of 2021, the supermajor said. Free cash flow jumped to $10.843 billion from $6.909 billion for the first quarter last year.
Production in the Permian came in at 560,000 barrels per day (bpd) at the end of the quarter, and the company remains on track to deliver a production increase of 25% this year versus full-year 2021, and to eliminate routine flaring by year-end, Exxon said.
After doubling earnings, Exxon is now tripling its share repurchase program up to a total of $30 billion through 2023.
Chevron (NYSE: CVX), for its part, reported adjusted earnings of $6.5 billion, or $3.36 per diluted share, for first quarter of 2022. That's more than triple the adjusted earnings of $1.7 billion for the first quarter of 2021, and the highest quarterly earnings for Chevron since 2012.
Chevron's adjusted per share earnings also missed the $3.41 analyst expectations in the Journal.
Yet, free cash flow surged to $6.1 billion, from $2.5 billion for the first quarter of 2021.
Chevron reported record production in the Permian, at 692,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the first quarter, and raised its 2022 guidance to 700,000 - 750,000 bpd, an increase of over 15 percent from 2021.
"Chevron is doing its part to grow domestic supply with U.S. oil and gas production up 10 percent over first quarter last year," Mike Wirth, Chevron's chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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