Chevron’s third-quarter profit slumps
Chevron on Friday posted a third-quarter profit that missed Wall Street estimates by a wide margin, and its shares fell more than 5 percent.
Oil company earnings have slumped from record year-ago levels as crude prices eased and higher costs crimped refining and chemical profits.
Shares were down 5.4 percent at $145.71 in afternoon trading.
"It was a noisy quarter with non-cash charges due primarily to something we called timing effects," Chief Financial Officer Pierre Breber said in an interview, citing oil and gas cargoes en route to customers that would be recognised in the future.
The company earned $6.5 billion, down from $11.2 billion in the same period last year. Adjusted profit was $3.05 a share, 19 percent below analysts' estimates, according to LSEG data.
The earnings miss came after Chevron had warned in the second quarter that maintenance in its oil and gas production and refining businesses would hurt results.
It also suffered a setback in its more than $45 billion Kazakhstan project, resulting in a six-month delay and should now reach 1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed) in 2025.
Commissioning setbacks in adapting an infrastructure that dates to the Soviet era will add about 4 percent in costs and a six-month delay in expanding production at its Tengizchevroil (TCO) operation, which Breber called, "clearly disappointing news."
The field conversion from high to low pressure is now set to start in the first half of 2024, and the future growth project in the first half of 2025, followed by a three month ramp-up.
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