LONDON: The biggest oil companies are failing to increase earnings as crude trades near a nine-month low, production wanes and costs rise.
ExxonMobil on Thursday reported that earnings were little changed from a year earlier. Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, BP and Total will post lower quarterly profit when they announce earnings in the coming week, analysts’ estimates show. The group, which is investing a record $155bn this year to bolster output, is disappointing investors: The companies’ shares have gained an average 2.6 percent this year as the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index jumped 11 percent.
“It’s going to be a very rough ride for the majors,” said Fadel Gheit, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co in New York. “If oil prices go down from here, no major integrated oil company will beat the S&P. We cannot hope they’ll be able to squeeze costs faster than falling oil prices.”
Benchmark Brent crude, used to price two-thirds of global sales, has dropped 8 percent this year to $102 a barrel as hydraulic fracturing technology opens wells in the United States, prompting BP to predict the nation may top Saudi Arabia as the biggest producer of oil and liquid fuels. Goldman Sachs Group Inc cut its forecast for average Brent prices in 2013 to $100 from $110 as supply grows.
At the same time, producing oil and natural gas is becoming harder for the world’s largest energy companies. Output at the five so-called super majors reached its zenith in 2004 at 16.9 million barrels a day of oil equivalent. Production has slipped 7 percent since then to 15.7 million barrels last year, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
“The recent fall in oil prices is hardly likely to change sentiment toward this group of companies, whilst capital intensity has continued to rise as industry inflation continues,” Iain Reid, an analyst at Jefferies Group in London, said.
The United States will surpass Russia and Saudi Arabia this year to become the largest liquid fuel producer, BP said. Liquids output, which includes oil, natural gas liquids and biofuels, will be boosted in the US by tight oil extracted by the same technology that sparked a boom in shale gas.
The quest for new deposits to replace shrinking established fields is costing a record amount this year and all five companies have pledged to maintain or increase capital expenditure to bolster output. BP Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley said in February that the inflation rate for oil-field services and supplies is running at about 10 percent a year.
ExxonMobil, based in Irving, Texas, reported a 1 percent gain in first-quarter earnings from a year earlier on the strength of its chemical business. Production fell 3.5 percent and profit declined in the exploration and production unit.
In Europe, analysts estimate that Total’s adjusted profit fell 5.7 percent to $2.99bn. BP will say next week that profit in the first quarter dropped to $3.47bn from $4.8bn a year earlier, and Shell will say on May 2 that profit slid to $6.6bn from $7.28bn, Bloomberg data show.
Lower prices are also squeezing margins. Brent crude declined 4.9 percent from a year earlier to average $112.64 a barrel in the first quarter. New York-traded West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, fell 8.4 percent to $94.36. US gas prices gained 39 percent from a decade low to average $3.48 per million British thermal units.
Smaller US oil companies were also hurt by falling oil prices. Occidental Petroleum Corp, the largest oil producer in the continental US, and ConocoPhillips reported profit declines of 13 percent and 27 percent, respectively.
BP and Total have focused on selling off less profitable operations and emphasised frontier exploration, where the payoffs from new discoveries are biggest.
“It’s now apparent to the majors that you need a high- quality portfolio to maintain earnings,” said Jason Kenney, an analyst at Banco Santander in Edinburgh. “We’re in a period of inflation in the sector, and there’s value leakage in every spot along the chain.”
While profits from selling crude oil are falling, the business of turning crude into gasoline and other products has improved. Global refining margins were $17.80 a barrel in the first quarter compared with $14.75 a year earlier, according to BP’s refining marker margin.
Marathon Oil Corp and ConocoPhillips have spun off their refining business to add to their share prices. The biggest oil producers may now also have to try something radical to reward their shareholders, Oppenheimer’s Gheit said.
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