US Oil And Gas Main Producers Revenues Declined Sharply In Third Quarter
Oct/31/2009 | Under Crude Oil - Natural Gas - Oil and Gas Drilling - Petroleum
Decline in oil and natural gas prices , the energy sector decreased demand made a major oil and gas producer revenues in the third quarter decreased sharply.
U.S. oil major Chevron Corp. registered a 51-percent drop in third-quarter profit Friday, becoming the latest oil major hit by lower oil and natural gas prices and weak refining margins.
Quarterly net profit of Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company behind Exxon Mobil Corp., went down to 3.83 billion U.S. dollars, from 7.89 billion a year earlier. Revenue also decreased 41 percent to 46.6 billion.
Exxon Mobil said Thursday its third-quarter net income fell 65 percent to 4.37 billion, from 14.8 billion, a year earlier. It is the company’s fourth straight drop in profit.
The company’s performance was continuously “affected by lower commodity prices and weak product margins,” Exxon Mobil CEO Rex W. Tillerson said in a statement.
ConocoPhillips, the third largest U.S. oil company, said Wednesday its third-quarter profit plunged 71 percent to 1.5 billion.
Though the U.S. economy may have seen signs of recovery, propelled by stimulus-driven gains in consumer spending and home building, oil companies still had a long way to go, analysts said.
There were some positive signs with respect to the improvement in energy demand and oil price, “but the outlook remains uncertain and we are not expecting a quick recovery,” said Peter Voser, CEO of Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s largest oil company. Shell also posted a 62-percent drop in third-quarter profit to 3.25 billion, from 8.45 billion a year ago.
The good news for the oil industry is that “oil has come off the floor,” said John Parry, an analyst with HIS Herold in Norwalk, Connecticut.
Though the oil industry may benefit from improved economic conditions, they could still face higher costs imposed by government policy measures, Parry said.
The bleeding is over, but the industry still faces a lot of challenges, such as the carbon tax and other issues which are going to come into play with some of their operations, he said.