NEW YORK — Exxon Mobil reported its third consecutive quarter of losses as the global pandemic curtailed travel and crippled global economic activity.
The energy giant on Friday posted a $680 million third-quarter loss and revenue tumbled to $46.2 billion, down from $65.05 billion during the same quarter last year.
The string of losses and what by almost all counts will be a money-losing year is new territory for Exxon Mobil, which has not posted an annual loss since Exxon and Mobil merged in 1999.
“This is a business that’s made a billion dollars a quarter on average from 2011 to 2018 and it’s had a rough go,” said Peter McNally, global sector lead for industrials, materials and energy at Third Bridge, a research firm.
Already struggling with weak prices from oversupply, the pandemic has intensified the pain for oil and gas companies. The price of U.S. benchmark crude has fallen 40% since the start of the year. The cost for a barrel of oil tumbled 10% just this week as coronavirus infections surged in the U.S. and abroad.
Commuting to work has largely ended for millions of people. Air travel this year fell to levels not seen in the jet age and the economy suffered its worst contraction in decades as factories and other big energy consumers shut down. All indications point to a Thanksgiving celebrated close to home, and in smaller numbers this year.
Exxon has begun slashing costs to offset falling energy demand, and that means jobs.
A day after announcing 1,900 job cuts, Exxon said on Friday that it plans to cut 15% of its global workforce by the end of next year, about 11,250 jobs. The company employed 75,000 people at the end of 2019.
Chevron also announced job cuts Thursday after closing on its acquisition of Noble Energy earlier this month, saying it would trim the headcount at that company by about a quarter.
“We remain confident in our long-term strategy and the fundamentals of our business, and are taking the necessary actions to preserve value while protecting the balance sheet and dividend,” said Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods in a prepared statement.
Exxon said Friday that it may divest $25 billion to $30 billion in North American dry gas assets, and that it would cut capital expenditures to between $16 billion and $19 billion next year.
That would follow a year in which Exxon reduced capital spending by 30%, to $23 billion.
“We are on pace to achieve our 2020 cost-reduction targets and are progressing additional savings next year as we manage through this unprecedented down cycle,” Woods said.
Those planned reductions might not be enough to appease some investors. Exxon was the only one of the super-majors to post a loss this quarter, and is behind its peers in cost-cutting, said Jennifer Rowland, senior analyst at Edward Jones. “Everyone else either stayed in the black or got back into the black from the abyss of the second quarter. I think it’s telling that they’re the only ones still running in the red.”
The Irving, Texas, company produced 3.7 million barrels of oil per day in the third quarter, up 1% from the second quarter. But production is down slightly from the same period last year.
“We are not cancelling any projects that are in execution or in the funding process,” said Andrew Swiger, chief financial officer, in a conference call Friday.
Several analysts on the call questioned why Exxon will continue paying a dividend given the losses it’s suffering.
“Our objective is to maintain the dividend, advance the highest value investments, and maintain the debt at a cost- competitive level,” Swiger said.
“It’s not going well,” McNally said about Exxon. “You have to squint at some of the things to find things that are good.”
And the third quarter was an improvement compared with the last, when oil futures crashed below zero. Exxon and Chevron lost a combined $9 billion.
Chevron on Friday swung to a loss of $207 million after a quarterly profit of $2.9 billion last year. Revenue fell by $11 billion, to $24 billion.
Oil prices appeared to stabilize during the third quarter, however, and better conditions enabled Exxon to recover some of the production it had curtailed, the company said.
Demand for refined products also improved, and chemical sales volumes rose as demand for packaging increased and automotive and construction markets recovered, Exxon said.
Oil demand is expected to fall 8% globally this year, according to the International Energy Agency. While some demand has recovered since oil futures fell below $0 a barrel in April, countries are again locking down as the coronavirus surges anew across Europe and the U.S.
Exxon’s stock fell almost 3% Friday, and it’s down more than 50% this year. Chevron was relatively unchanged, but its shares are down about 40% in 2020.
The energy sector is the only one in the S&P 500 to fall since President Donald Trump took office. Energy stocks in the index have lost nearly 57%, and the five worst-performing stocks since Trump’s presidency began were energy companies.
OTTAWA – The parliamentary budget officer says the federal government likely failed to keep its deficit below its promised $40 billion cap in the last fiscal year.
However the PBO also projects in its latest economic and fiscal outlook today that weak economic growth this year will begin to rebound in 2025.
The budget watchdog estimates in its report that the federal government posted a $46.8 billion deficit for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland pledged a year ago to keep the deficit capped at $40 billion and in her spring budget said the deficit for 2023-24 stayed in line with that promise.
The final tally of the last year’s deficit will be confirmed when the government publishes its annual public accounts report this fall.
The PBO says economic growth will remain tepid this year but will rebound in 2025 as the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts stimulate spending and business investment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says the level of food insecurity increased in 2022 as inflation hit peak levels.
In a report using data from the Canadian community health survey, the agency says 15.6 per cent of households experienced some level of food insecurity in 2022 after being relatively stable from 2017 to 2021.
The reading was up from 9.6 per cent in 2017 and 11.6 per cent in 2018.
Statistics Canada says the prevalence of household food insecurity was slightly lower and stable during the pandemic years as it fell to 8.5 per cent in the fall of 2020 and 9.1 per cent in 2021.
In addition to an increase in the prevalence of food insecurity in 2022, the agency says there was an increase in the severity as more households reported moderate or severe food insecurity.
It also noted an increase in the number of Canadians living in moderately or severely food insecure households was also seen in the Canadian income survey data collected in the first half of 2023.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct 16, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales in August fell to their lowest level since January 2022 as sales in the primary metal and petroleum and coal product subsectors fell.
The agency says manufacturing sales fell 1.3 per cent to $69.4 billion in August, after rising 1.1 per cent in July.
The drop came as sales in the primary metal subsector dropped 6.4 per cent to $5.3 billion in August, on lower prices and lower volumes.
Sales in the petroleum and coal product subsector fell 3.7 per cent to $7.8 billion in August on lower prices.
Meanwhile, sales of aerospace products and parts rose 7.3 per cent to $2.7 billion in August and wood product sales increased 3.8 per cent to $3.1 billion.
Overall manufacturing sales in constant dollars fell 0.8 per cent in August.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.
