ExxonMobil doubles first quarter profit
ExxonMobil managed to almost double its first quarter net profit year/year to $5.5bn, despite being forced to take a $3.4bn post-tax impairment on its exit from the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas field in the Russian Far East, the company said on April 29.
The quarterly earnings figure was down from $8.9bn in the final quarter of 2021. Exxon is expected to complete its exit from Russian assets early this summer. It declared force majeure at Sakhalin-1 on April 27, blaming difficulties shipping crude into its supply chains due to the US embargo on Russian oil exports, in light of the Ukraine war. Sakhalin-1 typically exports around 273,000 barrels of oil equivalent/day, and is likely to be the largest of Exxon's Russian write-downs.
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Aside from Russia, Exxon said group oil and gas output fell 4% year/year to 3.7mn boe/d. The decrease was attributed to weather-related downtime, as well as regular scheduled maintenance and portfolio divestments. Exxon also said higher oil and gas prices reduced its production share "entitlement" at certain upstream contracts.
Exxon's free cash flow dipped by 27% quarter/quarter, from $15bn to $11bn, however company CEO Darren Woods said the headline profit increase was a strong platform to build on later this year. Woods said: "The quarter illustrated the strength of our underlying business and significant progress in further developing our competitive advantaged production portfolio.
"Earnings increased modestly, as strong margin improvement and underlying growth was offset by weather and timing impacts. The absence of these temporary impacts in March provides strong, positive momentum for the second quarter."