Higher Production Helps Chevron Overcome Low Oil Prices

U.S. upstream operations posted a loss of $460 million in the first quarter, which Chevron largely attributes to “sharply lower” crude oil prices. The company’s average sales price per barrel of crude oil and natural gas liquids were $43, down from $91 in the year-ago quarter. The realized average natural gas price dropped from $4.77 per thousand cubic feet to $2.27 year-over-year.

Net domestic oil-equivalent production rose 9% (59,000 barrels per day) to 699,000 barrels a day. Net liquids production was up 12% to 489,000 barrels a day.

The company’s international upstream group posted earnings of $2.02 billion, compared with $3.4 billion in the first quarter of 2014. That includes a net benefit of $522 million from foreign currency effects.

Chevron’s downstream businesses fared better. In the U.S. downstream profits rose from $422 million a year ago to $706 million this year, due primarily to higher margins as a result of lower crude prices. International upstream profits rose from $288 million a year ago to $717 million and included a net benefit of $54 million on foreign currency effects.

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Capital and exploratory expenditures in the first three months of 2015 totaled $8.6 billion, compared with $9.4 billion in the same period last year.

The company’s CEO said:

First quarter earnings declined from a year ago due to sharply lower oil prices, which reduced revenue and earnings in our upstream business. Downstream operations were strong, benefitting from lower feedstock costs and improved refinery reliability. We’re responding to the current price environment by capturing cost reductions, pacing new project approvals and further streamlining our portfolio as planned. We’re taking a number of deliberate actions to lower our cost structure, and I expect these efforts to increasingly show through in our financial results as the year progresses.

The earnings announcement did not include guidance, but the consensus estimate for the second quarter calls for EPS of $0.88 on revenues of $25.21 billion. For the full year, EPS and revenues are estimated at $3.85 and $131.26 billion, respectively.

Chevron’s shares were down about 1.5% in Friday’s early trading, at $109.42 in a 52-week range of $98.88 to $135.10. Thomson Reuters had a consensus analyst price target of around $114.00 before the report.

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