Exxon misses on profit as output dips

Investors battered the shares of America’s two biggest oil explorers after ExxonMobil Corp and Chevron Corp posted disappointing earnings, failing to fully capitalise on rising oil prices.

For Chevron, weakerthan-forecast financial results didn’t dissuade the company from resurrecting share buy-backs to the tune of $3 billion (Dh11 billion) annually after a threeyear hiatus. Exxon not only failed to live up to earnings expectations but also delivered its worst production performance since 2008 and offered no new payouts to shareholders.

Exxon’s failure to mimic the buy-back campaigns of most of its rivals added to investors’ pain: the oil giant’s stock tanked at more than twice the pace of Chevron. Exxon was down 4.3 per cent at 8:55am while Chevron took a 1.8 per cent penalty.

“When you see peers generating cash and returning it to shareholders that further reduces interest in the stock which was pretty low anyway,” said Brian Youngberg, an analyst at Edward Jones & Co.

Exxon produced the equivalent of 3.6 million barrels of oil in the second quarter, well short of the 3.83 million expected by analysts, the Irving Texasbased company said in a statement. Maintenance and repairs at undisclosed oilfields more than offset output gains from US shale and offshore Canadian assets, the company said.