"Our first-quarter performance was very strong, and our strategy to invest in high-quality, upstream growth assets is paying off," said chairman and CEO John Watson. "Current quarter earnings and cash flows benefitted significantly from higher prices for crude oil and natural gas."
Watson continued, "In the downstream, sales margins for refined petroleum products remain weak." He said that the company's restructuring plans for the downstream businessare progressing.
U.S. downstream earned $82 million in first-quarter 2010, compared with earnings of $136 million a year earlier. The decline was primarily due to lower refined products sales margins and charges related to employee reductions.
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ConocoPhillips
Houston-based ConocoPhillips said first-quarter 2010 earnings were $2.1 billion, or $1.40 per share, compared with earnings of $800 million, or 54 cents per share, for the same period in 2009. The increase in earnings is primarily due to the impact of significantly higher crude oil prices and lower operating costs, partially offset by lower production volumes, lower worldwide realized refining and marketing margins and after-tax charges of $110 million.
"Improving market conditions in the first quarter contributed to increased earnings," said Jim Mulva, chairman and CEO. "Our performance in the first quarter was solid, with E&P production in line with the fourth quarter of the prior year. This allowed us to capture the benefit of significantly improved oil prices. In R&M, the U.S. refining capacity utilization rate improved, light-heavy crude differentials widened and we reduced costs."
Click herefor the company's full release.ExxonMobil
Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil Corp. reported first-quarter 2010 earnings of $6.3 billion, up 38% from first quarter of last year.
Upstream earnings were $5.814 billion, up $2.311 billion from first-quarter 2009. Higher crude oil prices, partly offset by lower natural gas realizations, increased earnings $2.5 billion. Higher gas volumes improved earnings by $190 million while higher operating expenses decreased earnings $380 million. Earnings from U.S. upstream operations were $1.091 billion, $731 million higher than first-quarter 2009.
Downstream earnings were $37 million, down $1.096 billion. Lower refining margins drove the majority of the decline, reducing earnings $1.1 billion. The U.S. Downstream recorded a loss of $60 million, down $412 million from first-quarter 2009.
"ExxonMobil achieved solid results from its worldwide operations with first-quarter earnings of $6.3 billion, up 38% from first quarter of last year. Our results reflect higher crude oil realizations and stronger chemical margins while the downstream industry margins remained weak," said chairman Rex W. Tillerson.
Click herefor the company's full release.Hess
Hess Corp, New York, reported net income of $538 million for first-quarter 2010 compared with a net loss of $59 million for first-quarter 2009.
Exploration and production earnings, including a gain on an asset sale, were $551 million in first-quarter 2010 compared with a loss of $64 million in first-quarter 2009.
Marketing and refining earnings were $87 million in first-quarter 2010 compared with $102 million in first-quarter 2009. Refining operations generated a loss of $56 million compared with a loss of $18 million in first-quarter 2009.
Marketing earnings were $121 million, an increase of $20 million from first-quarter 2009 primarily due to higher margins. Income from trading activities was $22 million, up from $19 million in first-quarter 2009.
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Sunoco
Philadelphia-based Sunoco Inc. reported a net loss of $63 million (a loss of 53 cents per share diluted) for first-quarter 2010 compared to net income of $12 million (10 cents per share diluted) for first-quarter 2009. Excluding special items, Sunoco had income for the 2010 first quarter of $17 million (14 cents per share diluted) compared to 2009 first quarter income of $59 million (50 cents per share diluted).
"While first quarter results reflect the continued challenges caused by ongoing economic weakness and excess global supply of petroleum and chemical products, our non-refining businesses continue to generate steady earnings," said Lynn L. Elsenhans, chairman and CEO.
Sunoco's earnings contribution from its retail marketing, logistics and coke businesses totaled $75 million, up from $61 million in first-quarter 2009.
"Although the market remains challenging, Sunoco is well prepared," said Elsenhans. "The early, proactive steps we took during this cycle have made us stronger, leaner and more competitive. We continue to drive toward a sustainably lower cost structure, and our recent actions to strengthen our balance sheet have enabled us to maintain our financial flexibility and position us to take advantage of attractive growth opportunities in our logistics, coke and retail marketing businesses."
She added, "To build a better future for Sunoco, we remain focused on the fundamentals: running our refineries safely and reliably at optimal capacity utilization, lowering our breakeven cost per barrel and improving margin capture, all of which are designed to increase our cash generation through operations."
Retail marketing earned $21 million in the current quarter versus $6 million in the first quarter of 2009. The increase in earnings was due to higher average retail gasoline margins and lower expenses, partially offset by lower distillate margins and lower gasoline and distillate sales volumes.
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Tesoro
San Antonio, Texas-based Tesoro Corp. reported a first-quarter 2010 net loss of $155 million, or a loss of $1.11 per diluted share, compared to net earnings of $51 million, or 37 cents per diluted share, for first-quarter 2009. The 2010 results include a $7 million tax charge in the quarter as a result of the passage of the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act and Heath Care &d Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.
First-quarter segment operating loss was $125 million, compared to segment operating income of $162 million in the first quarter a year ago. The decrease in operating income was primarily due to lower West Coast gasoline and diesel margins as a result of excess product inventories and narrow heavy to light crude price differentials.
"The combination of excess gasoline inventories and seasonally weak product demand on the West Coast significantly impacted our first quarter financial results," said Bruce Smith, chairman, president and CEO of Tesoro. "Although we aren't pleased with these results, we did see signs of improving gasoline demand and subsequently margins during the quarter. In January, the Department of Energy reported positive year over year gasoline and diesel demand growth on the West Coast. Additionally, we saw West Coast gasoline demand increase from January to March, a pattern that has been typical during the first quarter in years past. While we are taking a conservative approach to our summer plans, these are good indicators of the continuing stability we are seeing in our markets."
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