XOM Exxon Mobil Corp

By Chelsey Dulaney 

Exxon Mobil Corp., the largest U.S. oil company, said its fourth-quarter profit tumbled 58% as depressed oil prices continue to hamper its exploration and production business.

The Irving, Texas, company reported a profit of $2.78 billion, or 67 cents a share, down from $6.57 billion, or $1.56 a share, a year earlier. Exxon hasn't logged a quarterly profit below $3 billion since 2002. Still, Exxon's per-share profit was better than the 63 cents a share in earnings Wall Street had expected.

Chief Executive Rex W. Tillerson said the results "reflect the challenging environment," and shares of the company fell 2.4% in premarket trading to $74.50.

Profit in the exploration and production, or upstream, business plunged to $857 million from $5.47 billion a year earlier. Its U.S. upstream division swung to a loss of $538 million from a profit of $1.5 billion a year earlier.

But Exxon was again helped by fatter profits in the downstream division, which is helped by low prices for oil and gas. In the latest quarter, refining and marketing earnings, or downstream, more than doubled to $1.35 billion from $497 million a year earlier.

The company's profit was also helped by a 29% decline in capital spending from the prior year to $7.42 billion. Exxon has moved to conserve cash as oil and gas prices languish at their lowest levels in more than a decade.

Revenue fell 31% to $59.81 billion, while analysts had forecast revenue of $51.36 billion.

For 2016, Exxon said it would further pare back its share repurchases. The company said it would buy back shares in the current quarter to offset dilution, but it doesn't plan to make any repurchases to reduce share outstanding.

In the fourth quarter, the company bought back $500 million in stock to reduce shares outstanding. Exxon last year began scaling back its quarterly buybacks, which used to be about $3 billion a quarter. Stock repurchases are popular with investors because they shrink the number of shares available and tend to make them more valuable.

Oil companies around the world have been battered by a price crash that has left crude and natural gas stubbornly low. Producing countries such as Saudi Arabia and major international oil companies like Exxon have all continued to pump more fuel in the face of the crisis--a standoff that shows no signs of abating.

Exxon's production was up 4.8% in the quarter on an oil-equivalent basis.

Last week, Chevron Corp., the second biggest U.S. energy company by revenue behind Exxon, kicked off earnings season for big energy companies by reporting its first quarterly loss since 2002. The company said it was readying for a second wave of layoffs and unveiled plans to slash its capital spending by more than $9 billion this year.

Write to Chelsey Dulaney at Chelsey.Dulaney@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 02, 2016 08:55 ET (13:55 GMT)

Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024

Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024