Short interest for the USA integrated oil and gas major decreased to 65.16 million shares.
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“International refining was the surprise that was greater-than-anticipated”, said Brian Youngberg, senior oil analyst at Edward Jones. “They were running a leaner ship to begin with”.
Exxon, in the third quarter of fiscal 2015 (3QFY15 ended September 30), despite seeing an year-over-year decline in revenues and profits, managed to beat consensus estimates. The business has blunted the impact of crude’s collapse.
At Chevron, the news was much darker.
Shares of Exxon were up 0.8 percent at $82.90 on Friday afternoon. That’s the steepest cuts since the 2001 Texaco merger that created the company in its modern incarnation. An equal number of outside contractors will be let go, Watson said.
Before the reductions, Chevron employed 64,700 people.
“We have a good USA upstream business, but it didn’t make any money for us in the past quarter”, he said during the call.
Chevron said that third-quarter earnings plunged to $2.04 billion, or $1.09 per share, down from $5.6 billion, or $2.95 per share, a year ago. Analysts surveyed by Zacks had expected 89 cents per share.
Downstream operations such as refining-the process of turning crude into gasoline and diesel-benefit from cheaper oil and natural gas that keeps costs low.
Exxon hasn’t been unscathed by the downturn. Its budget will decline further in 2017 and 2018 to between $20 billion and $24 billion.
Net income fell to C$479 million ($364 million), or 56 cents a share, from C$936 million, or C$1.10, a year earlier, the Calgary-based company said Friday in a statement.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected a per-share profit of 89 cents and revenue of $63.75 billion.
Shell reported $7.9 billion in charges, including $2.6 billion for its decision to abandon Arctic drilling off Alaska and $2 billion related to the decision to cancel the Carmon Creek project.
Exxon has moved to conserve cash in a sign that it doesn’t expect a quick rebound in crude prices.
Exxon has lost 11% of its market value this year, on track for the worst annual performance since 2009.
Chevron Corp. took an even bigger hit.
Crude prices have fallen more than 50 percent from last year’s high above $100 a barrel.
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Though it has pleased investors and analysts with its figures, Exxon is feeling the heat from American news organisations, such as InsideClimate News and the Los Angeles Times, which have accused it of failing to disclose the findings of research it had commissioned on fossil fuels and climate change. “All of our assets are managed to maximize returns through the life cycle”, said Woodbury, the investor relations chief.
