Business updates: Exxon Mobil and Chevron report quarterly losses

Two U.S. energy giants reported losses in an industry punished by pandemic lockdowns.

Exxon Mobil and Chevron, the country’s two energy giants, on Friday reported quarterly losses as the oil and gas industry continued to reel from the pandemic.

Demand for oil and gas tumbled this spring as governments and businesses shut down the economy and told millions of people to stay home, sending prices sharply lower. Although it has recovered a bit since then, demand remains lower than it was before the pandemic, and a recent rise in cases in Europe and the United States could send it even lower.

Exxon Mobil said that it lost $680 million in the third quarter, its third consecutive quarterly loss. Chevron reported a loss of $207 million for the quarter, compared with a gain of $2.6 billion for the same quarter in 2019.

Exxon’s results were better than analysts had expected. The company’s loss for the three months that ended in September was about $400 million smaller than its loss in the second quarter as oil and natural gas prices recovered somewhat from a deep slump in the spring.

Exxon reported that its production of oil and gas were up 1 percent from the second quarter. But revenue fell 29 percent, to $46.2 billion from same period in 2019 because demand for oil and gas continued to be weak.

“We remain confident in our long-term strategy and the fundamentals of our business, and are taking necessary actions to preserve value while protecting the balance sheet and dividend,” Darren W. Woods, Exxon’s chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.

Chevron had quarterly revenue of $24 billion, down from $35 billion in the same period a year earlier. Oil and gas production was down 7 percent from a year ago, while refining and other downstream earnings plummeted to $141 million in the quarter from $389 million a year earlier.

“The world’s economy continues to operate below prepandemic levels, impacting demand for our products which are closely linked to economic activity,” Michael K. Wirth, Chevron’s chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.

— NYT: Top Stories