ExxonMobil reported on Friday earnings of US$1.7 billion for the second quarter, a 59-percent tumble on the year, amid sharply lower commodity prices and weaker refining margins.
Earnings per share assuming dilution fell to US$0.41 from US$1.00 for the second quarter last year, missing Thomson Reuters' analyst expectations of US$0.64 earnings per share.
Upstream earnings plummeted by US$1.7 billion, to US$294 million in the second quarter of 2016, and the U.S. upstream segment posted a loss of US$514 million, swelled from a loss of US$47 million in the second quarter of 2015. Non-U.S. upstream earnings tumbled by US$1.3 billion, to US$808 million.
Exxon's oil-equivalent production dropped to 3.957 million barrels per day compared with 3.979 million boepd. The production numbers this April to June were nearly 3 percent below the 4.069-million average forecast of four analyst estimates, according to Bloomberg.
Exxon said that efforts to increase production were partially offset by field decline and downtime which occurred mostly as a result of the wildfires in Canada in May.
Downstream earnings fell by US$681 million from the second quarter last year to US$825 million for this past quarter, chiefly due to weaker refining margins.
Exxon is the latest in a string of oil majors to report declining earnings or losses for the second quarter, due to weak refining activity and persistently low crude oil prices. Shell shocked analysts on Thursday with a 72-percent plunge in profits, which missed estimates by more than US$1 billion.
Earlier this week, Statoil reported a loss for the second quarter while BP Plc said its net profit dropped to US$720 million, from US$1.3 billion for the second quarter of 2015, as lower oil and gas prices, and significantly lower refining margins affected the results.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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