Chevron exceeds expectations for quarterly profits on the back of higher oil production
Chevron Corp. beat Wall Street expectations for the third quarter profit on Friday. However, its earnings dropped from a previous year. Chevron Corp, which has had its proposed $53 billion takeover of Hess delayed by Exxon Mobil Ltd and CNOOC Ltd due to their challenge, reported a profit adjusted of $4.53 billion. This compares to $5.72 million a year earlier. The shares rose by 2.6% ahead of normal trading hours. The oil industry has seen profits fall this year as a result of lower crude prices and a weaker growth in fuel demand. Oil futures for the quarter ending Sept. 30, averaged 17% less than the previous quarter.
Chevron pays $550 million to Richmond, California
Chevron Corp will pay Richmond City Council $500 million over a period of 10 years. The city made the announcement in a press release, after it dropped a ballot proposal on a tax on Richmond's oil refinery. Richmond was planning to ask voters for approval of a tax for the refinery that processes around 250,000 barrels per day. Richmond said Chevron must pay its fair share in the community, where it has operated for more than a century. In a statement on its website, the city said that as a result the settlement approved by the council on Wednesday, it agreed to remove the measure.
Exxon in Advanced Talks for $60B Acquisition of Pioneer - Sources
Exxon Mobil is in advanced talks to acquire Pioneer Natural Resources in a deal that could value the Permian shale basin producer at about $60 billion, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday. The acquisition would be Exxon's biggest since its $81 billion deal for Mobil in 1998 and would expand its footprint in one of the most lucrative regions of the U.S. oil patch.Pioneer's shares rose nearly 12% to $240.47 in premarket trading on Friday while Exxon slipped 1.7%.Pioneer, which had a market value as of Thursday of $50 billion, is the third-largest producer of oil in the Permian basin after Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips.
Chevron to Buy PDC Energy in $7.6 bln Deal
Chevron Corp said on Monday it would acquire PDC Energy Inc in an all-stock transaction for $7.6 billion, including debt, adding new drilling inventory to its U.S. oil and gas reserves.The company has been under pressure on Wall Street to show it can keep expanding production after 2027 as its main shale holdings in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico near their peak output. The PDC Energy deal is the second in three years that bulks up Chevron's shale operations in Colorado and Wyoming. Chevron is…
Valero Seeks US Approval to Import Venezuelan Oil
Valero Energy Corp, the second-largest U.S. oil refiner, is seeking Washington's permission to import Venezuelan crude, according to four people close to the matter, hoping for a repeat of the approval granted to Chevron Corp in November after a four-year ban.President Joe Biden's administration has eased some U.S. sanctions on the OPEC-member nation in an effort to encourage a political dialogue with the country's opposition. That has led to further pressure from U.S., European and Asian energy firms, but Washington has resisted any additional major steps for now.Venezuelan oil resumed flowing to the U.S.
Venezuela's PDVSA Freezes Most Oil Exports for Contract Reviews
The new head of Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA has suspended most oil export contracts while his team reviews them in a move to avoid payment defaults, according to an internal document seen by Reuters and people familiar with the matter.Since U.S. trading sanctions were first imposed on PDVSA in 2019, the company has increasingly resorted to little known middlemen to allocate its oil exports, leading to big price discounts and problems with payments affecting its cashflow.The freeze order is leading to port delays…
US Prepares Renewal of Chevron's Venezuela License Without Broader Terms
The U.S. Treasury Department is getting ready to renew in the coming days Chevron Corp's license to operate in Venezuela, but likely without the greatly expanded terms the U.S. oil major sought, four people close to the talks said.The last U.S. energy producer in Venezuela asked President Joe Biden's government in March for a license that would allow it a greater say in its joint ventures with Venezuela's state-run PDVSA, a first step to reviving output and controlling where oil is sent.In a reversal of earlier hopes for a broadly expanded authorization…
Investors on Board as U.S. Oil Majors Dismiss Wind and Solar Projects
Top U.S. oil firms are doubling down on drilling, deepening a divide with European rivals on the outlook for renewables, and winning support from big investors who do not expect the stateside companies to invest in wind and solar. Among a dozen U.S. fund managers contacted by Reuters from companies overseeing about $7 trillion in assets, most said they prefer oil firms to generate returns from businesses they know best and give shareholders cash to make their own renewable bets. With oil and gas prices jumping this year, the U.S.
Shell Exits Permian with $9.5B Sale to ConocoPhillips. Its U.S. Output Now Mostly Offshore
Royal Dutch Shell said on Monday it would sell its Permian Basin assets to ConocoPhillips for $9.5 billion in cash, an exit from the largest U.S. oilfield for the energy major shifting its focus to the clean energy transition.For ConocoPhillips, it is the second sizable acquisition in a year in the heart of the U.S. shale industry, as American and European producers diverge in whether to focus on hydrocarbons going forward.Like all of the world's largest oil companies, Shell is under pressure from investors…
15 Bids in To Market Guyana Governent Crude
Guyana received bids from 15 different companies aiming to market the government's share of the crude produced off the South American country's coast, according to Guyana's National Procurement and Tender Board Administration website on Wednesday.The government re-launched the search last month after a previous tender was discarded. Bids were due on Aug. 3, and companies were asked to indicate the commission they would charge per barrel of crude exported. The board did not indicate when it would select a partner.An Exxon Mobil Corp-led consortium has discovered more than 8 billion barrels of oil and gas off Guyana's coast…
New York City Sues Exxon, BP, Shell Over Climate Change
New York City on Thursday sued three major oil companies and the top industry trade group in state court, arguing that the companies are misrepresenting themselves by selling fuels as "cleaner" and advertising themselves as leaders in fighting climate change.The lawsuit comes after a federal appeals court this month rejected the city's effort to hold five major oil companies liable to help pay the costs of harm caused by global warming.The lawsuit said Exxon Mobil Corp, BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell and industry…
Chevron Shareholders to Vote on Climate Change Proposals, Emissions Targets
Chevron Corp shareholders will vote on proposals aiming to require the No. 2 U.S.
Chevron, Microsoft, Schlumberger to Build Carbon Capture Plant in California
Chevron Corp is partnering with Microsoft Corp, oilfield services firm Schlumberger and privately held Clean Energy Systems to build a carbon capture plant in California, as the U.S. oil major expands investments in renewable technology.Fossil fuel companies have faced increased pressure in recent years to reduce emissions, spend more on low-carbon energy and disclose the impact their production has on climate change.Chevron said on Thursday the plant, located in the city of Mendota, will convert agricultural biomass to electricity…
Coronavirus, Consolidation Taking Toll On Energy Jobs
Oil and gas companies worldwide are taking an axe to their employment rolls, shedding workers to survive what is expected to be a prolonged stretch of weak demand.Exxon Mobil Corp said it will cut its workforce by 15%, or about 14,000 people, along with oil majors Chevron Corp and Royal Dutch Shell Plc.All told, more than 400,000 oil and gas sector jobs have been cut this year, according to Rystad Energy, with about half of those in the United States, where several big exploration companies and most large oil service companies are headquartered.Coronavirus has devastated swathes of the global economy…
Exxon to Cut 14,000 Jobs as Pandemic Hits Oil Demand
ExxonMobil Corp said on Thursday it could cut its global workforce by about 15%, including deep white-collar staff reductions in the United States, as the COVID-19 pandemic batters energy demand and prices.Exxon and other oil producers have been slashing costs due to a collapse in oil demand and ill-timed bets on new projects. The top U.S. oil company earlier outlined more than $10 billion in budget cuts this year."The impact of COVID-19 on the demand for ExxonMobil's products has increased the urgency of the ongoing efficiency work…
Offshore Oil Wells, Ports Shut as Hurricane Sally Advances on U.S. Gulf
Energy companies, ports and refiners raced on Monday to shut down as Hurricane Sally grew stronger while lumbering toward the central U.S. Gulf Coast, the second significant hurricane to shutter oil and gas activity over the last month.The hurricane is disrupting oil imports and exports as the nation's sole offshore terminal, the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), stopped loading tanker ships on Sunday, while the port of New Orleans closed on Monday.The U.S. government said 21%, or nearly 396,000 barrels per day (bpd)…
Chevron Diversity Ratio to Improve as Layoffs Progress
Oil major Chevron Corp expects to reduce the dominance of white males in company management during cost-cutting this year, upping the share of senior level jobs held by women and ethnic minorities to 44% from 38% last year, the company said in a statement.Like most of its peers in an industry struggling with the collapse of oil prices this year, Chevron is cutting spending, consolidating business units, and has asked some managers to reapply for their jobs.Figures from the end of last year show that less than a quarter of Chevron's U.S.
Chevron CEO Sees Continued 'Choppy Economic and Price Activity'
The chief executive of U.S. oil giant Chevron Corp on Monday said the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic has it planning for "choppy" oil prices and economic activity globally.Chevron said on Monday it would buy oil and gas producer Noble Energy Inc for about $5 billion in stock, the first big energy deal since the coronavirus crisis started."The crystal ball is cloudy right now," Mike Wirth said in an interview. "There’s so much uncertainty on the trajectory of the pandemic, the rate of development of effective vaccines and government policy interventions to try to manage risk between here and there. It's a fluid environment.
Petrobras Sees No Need to Cut Oil Production
Brazil's state-run Petrobras sees no need for cuts in oil production, executives say, as the market for its crude remains robust in China, while domestic demand for fuel picks up amid social distancing fatigue in Latin America's largest economy.On a Friday earnings call with analysts, executives credited the company's strong relationship with independent refineries in China's Shandong Province, known as "teapots,"' for allowing Petrobras to export a record amount of crude in recent months, even as some economies are effectively shut.
Chevron Cuts Spending, Says Asset Sales Lift Profits
Chevron Corp on Friday slashed its capital spending plans by another $2 billion as the coronavirus pandemic guts demand for oil and gas, while delivering a year-over-year 38% increase in profits.Global fuel demand has crashed by a third while many people shelter at home for an indefinite period. Major oil companies have largely reported losses as an oil glut and a shortage of storage space sends prices to historic lows.Earnings at Chevron beat Wall Street expectations and were $3.6 billion in the first quarter…
