Chevron (CVX) First Quarter 2024 Earnings Report | Wilnesh News

Chevron Profits on Friday beat expectations but fell from a year earlier as refineries and international natural gas operations faced headwinds.

Compared with the same period last year, the oil giant’s net profit fell 16% to $5.5 billion, or $2.97 per share. Excluding one-time items, Chevron reported earnings of $2.93 per share, beating Wall Street expectations.

Affected by this news, Chevron’s stock price fell less than 1% in pre-market trading.

The company attributed the profit decline to lower refinery sales margins and lower natural gas prices eroding profits from international production.

Here’s how Chevron’s first-quarter report compared with Wall Street expectations, according to a survey of analysts by London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG):

• Earnings per share: Adjusted $2.93, $2.87 expected
• Revenue: $48.72 billion, $50.66 billion expected

Oil prices have risen more than 15% this year, with gasoline futures up 31%, but they have done little to boost profits as the rest of the energy industry struggles.

Natural gas prices have plummeted 35% this year due to oversupply. Gasoline retail and distribution margins, or the difference between retail prices and refining prices, were also lower in February and March than a year earlier, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Chevron said it remains confident its acquisition of Hess will be completed in 2024, despite Exxon Mobil challenging its rights to a joint operating agreement for oil assets in Guyana in an arbitration court.

Chevron said it expects the shareholder vote and the Federal Trade Commission’s request for information about the deal to be completed in the second quarter.

Profits at Chevron’s U.S. refining operations plunged by more than half to $453 million. Profits in the international refining business took an even bigger hit, falling nearly 60% to $330 million.

Due to increased sales, the U.S. oil and natural gas business recorded a profit of approximately US$2 billion, an increase of 16% over the same period last year. Chevron produced 1.57 million barrels of oil and natural gas per day in the United States this quarter, an increase of 35% from the same period last year, or 406,000 barrels per day.

The oil giant attributed the growth to strong production in the Permian and Denver-Julesburg basins.

International oil and gas revenue fell 6% to $3.2 billion due to lower maintenance and field output in Nigeria, which fell 39,000 barrels per day to 1.77 million barrels per day. Still, total global production rose 12% to 3.35 million barrels per day, the highest first-quarter output ever.

Capital expenditures increased to US$4.1 billion, an increase of 37% from US$3 billion in the same period last year. The increase in expenses was due to oil and gas production and PDC Energy’s older assets following the completion of the acquisition of PDC Energy last August.

Chevron still paid a $3 billion dividend this quarter and repurchased nearly $3 billion in stock, although its return on capital of 12.4% was down from 14.6% in last year’s first quarter.

Read Chevron’s full earnings report here.