Exxon and Chevron Report Lower Profits While Girding for Tariffs
The two largest U.S.oil companies reported their lowest first-quarter profits in years on Friday as they braced for the economic fallout from President Trump’s trade war, which has weakened consumer confidence and pushed oil prices down.U.S.
crude prices slipped below $60 a barrel this week, a threshold below which many companies cannot make money drilling new wells.Crude oil is now about $20 a barrel cheaper than it was just before Mr.
Trump took office.Not only is oil fetching less, companies are paying more for steel and other materials because of tariffs the president has imposed.There are signs that some companies are already pulling back as a result.As of last week, the number of rigs drilling wells in the Permian Basin, the largest U.S.
oil field, had fallen 3 percent in a month, according to Baker Hughes, an oil field service provider.That company’s customers have been putting off discretionary expenses, and spending across the industry is likely to fall this year, Baker Hughes executives said last week.Chevron, the second-largest U.S.
oil company, said months ago that it would spend less in 2025, and it has not changed its annual production or capital spending forecasts since.“We’re comfortable with where we are right now,” Eimear Bonner, the company’s chief financial officer, said in an interview.“We’ve navigated cycles before.
We know what to do.”The financial results that Chevron and Exxon Mobil, the largest U.S.oil and gas company, reported on Friday reflect the market before Mr.
Trump announced his latest round of tariffs.Around the same time, members of the producers cartel known as OPEC Plus surprised the market by saying its members would speed up plans to pump more oil.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
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