Marathon Oil quarterly profit surges on higher energy prices
Oil slipped on Thursday as an increase to US interest rates heightened fears of a global recession
Oil slipped on Thursday as an increase to US interest rates pushed up the dollar and heightened fears of a global recession that would crimp fuel demand, though losses were capped by concern over tight supply.
Brent crude dropped by 58 cents, or 0.88 percent, to $95.31 a barrel by 3.30 p.m. Saudi time, while US West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell 98 cents, or 1.09 percent, to $89.02.
Marathon Oil quarterly profit surges
US oil and gas producer Marathon Oil Corp. reported a jump in thirdquarter profit on Wednesday, helped by a surge in crude prices over tighter energy supplies following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The company also said it would acquire Ensign Natural Resources’ Eagle Ford assets for $3 billion, a deal expected to close by the end of this year.
The company said that adjusted net income stood at $832 million, or $1.24 per share, for the three months ended Sept. 30, compared with $310 million, or 39 cents per share, a year earlier. Analysts had anticipated earnings of $1.19 per share, according to Refinitiv IBES.
Marathon’s average realized US crude price rose to $93.67 per barrel in the reported quarter, up from last year’s $69.40 per barrel.
The company raised its profit outlook for operations in Equatorial Guinea to $610 million from a midpoint of $540 million previously, due to strong operational performance and exposure to increased European natural gas pricing.
It also boosted its outlook for 2022 spending by $100 million to $1.4 billion, in part due to inflation. Rival Chesapeake Energy on Wednesday said a top US natural gas basin could see a 15 percent jump in costs next year.
Production in the third quarter stood at 352,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, above last year’s 345,000 boepd.
TotalEnergies downplaying carbon emissions
Greenpeace France said on Wednesday that TotalEnergies’ had significantly under-reported its carbon emissions in 2019, which it warned were nearly four times higher than stated by the oil major.
As one of the world’s biggest oil and gas producers, the French firm has been trying to rebrand by branching out into fast-growing
renewables and emphasizing a shift away from hydrocarboncentered activities, leading to accusations of “greenwashing.”
Criticizing a lack of transparency, Greenpeace France said TotalEnergies’ core activities had generated around 1.64 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2019, against 455 million reported by the company in its own carbon balance.
The campaign group, which noted it had used the year 2019 as a reference to prevent any bias related to the COVID-19 pandemic, said it had based its own calculation
on publicly available production and trading data.
ConocoPhillips raises dividend
ConocoPhillips reported a jump in third quarter profit on Thursday, extending a string of bumper earnings from global oil producers benefiting from higher energy prices and robust demand, and also raised its quarterly dividend by 11 percent.
The Houston, Texas-based company’s net income rose to $4.5 billion, or $3.55 per share, for the three months ended Sept. 30.