US oil and gas giant ExxonMobil reported a 3Q net profit of ~$3.2 billion, a 49 percent fall $6.25 billion a year ago.
The company cited lower prices, and higher growth-related expenses in the upstream division, lower margins in the Chemical and Downstream businesses as some of the reasons behind the drop in earnings.
Brent crude averaged $62 in the third quarter of 2019, down from $75 in the third quarter of 2018.
Exxon’s production grew three percent from the third quarter of 2018 to 3.9 million barrels per day. Excluding entitlement effects and divestments, liquids production increased 4 percent driven by Permian Basin growth, while natural gas volumes increased 1 percent.
“Liquids volumes were in line with the second quarter, with U.S. unconventional growth offsetting the base decline. Natural gas volumes were down 1 percent. Permian unconventional development continued with production up 7 percent from the second quarter and more than 70 percent from the third quarter of last year, “ ExxonMobil said.
In the offshore space during the quarter, the company announced another oil discovery on the Stabroek block offshore Guyana at the Tripletail-1 well, adding to the previously announced resource estimate of more than 6 billion oil-equivalent barrels.
The Liza Destiny floating production, storage, and offloading vessel arrived offshore Guyana, targeting first oil at the Liza Phase 1 development by December 2019. ExxonMobil estimates gross production from the Stabroek block will exceed 750,000 oil-equivalent barrels per day by 2025.
In Europe, ExxonMobil signed an agreement with Vår Energi AS for the sale of its non-operated upstream assets in Norway for $4.5 billion as part of its previously announced plans to divest approximately $15 billion in non-strategic assets by 2021.
“We are making excellent progress on our long-term growth strategy,” Darren W. Woods, chairman, and chief executive officer said.
“Growth in the Permian continues to drive increased liquids production and we are ahead of schedule for first oil in Guyana. The value of our position in Guyana improved further this quarter with an additional discovery, our fourth this year. We are also making good progress on our advantaged investments in the Downstream and Chemical.
“This quarter, we started production at our new high-performance polyethylene line in Beaumont. The competitiveness of our portfolio was further enhanced with the divestment of non-strategic assets, reaching almost a third of our 2021 objective of $15 billion.”
