Rising U.S. production weighed on oil prices in the first quarter compared
to the same period last year, and those lower prices, combined with weak
refining margins, impacted the revenues and net profits of many of the
world’s largest listed companies in the oil industry.
According to data compiled by Anadolu
Agency from the Q1 2019 reports of the 12 top listed companies in the oil
industry—ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Halliburton, Schlumberger,
Baker Hughes, BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Total, Eni, Equinor, and Rosneft—the
combined net income and revenues at those companies were lower in the first
quarter this year compared to Q1 2018.
According to Anadolu Agency’s calculations, the combined revenue of these
12 companies declined by 4.63 percent annually to some US$393.5 billion in Q1
2019. The combined net profits dropped by 4.45 percent—to US$23.6 billion
from US$24.7 billion for Q1 2018.
Shell was the top performing company with the highest net profit and
revenue in absolute terms, according to Anadolu Agency’s estimates.
Shell was one of the last oil supermajors to report Q1 earnings and it was
the one that stood out among the crowd with better-than-expected
results, as its trading and natural gas businesses offset weak oil prices
and depressed refining margins that plagued the other majors in the Q1
earnings season.
Volatile crude prices and weak refining margins led to lower
earnings at all five oil supermajors in the first quarter of 2019,
suggesting that Big Oil shouldn’t stay complacent several quarters after the
industry emerged from one of the worst downturns in a generation.
Big Oil’s five majors—ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Total, and Shell—reported a
mixed bag of results for Q1. While net earnings at all companies were lower
than last year’s first quarter on the back of lower average Brent Crude
prices compared to Q1 2018 and weak refining margins that battered downstream
earnings, some supermajors, such as Shell, met and even exceeded analyst
expectations thanks to strong trading profits and to their natural gas
businesses.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
