Exxon Profit Falls 46%, Chevron 37% Despite Oil Surge
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- Exxon Mobil posted Q1 earnings of $4.2bn, down roughly 46% from ~$7.7bn a year earlier, while Chevron reported $2.2bn, down about 37% from ~$3.5bn, though both beat Wall Street expectations
- Exxon attributed the drop to "timing effects" and Middle East volume impacts; excluding those, its adjusted profit was $8.8bn, and Chevron said unfavorable timing effects totaled ~$3bn for the quarter
- Darren Woods, Exxon's chair and CEO, explained on CNBC that in volatile markets, companies book hedges on paper while physical barrels sit in inventory, creating "deferred profit" not captured in the quarter
- BP more than doubled its profits in the same period, crediting "exceptional oil trading" for its highest quarterly profit since 2023, prompting advocacy groups and some European finance ministers to call for windfall profit taxes
- ConocoPhillips, a partner in Qatar's state gas company, cut its annual output forecast after Iranian attacks on QatarEnergy LNG's export plant, which state energy officials said will take years to repair
- The average US gas price has climbed to $4.39 per gallon, up from $3.187 a year ago, as Americans face elevated inflation and slowing job growth amid continued Middle East turmoil
- Donald Trump declared on Truth Social at the war's outset that "The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World… so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money," a claim the two largest US oil majors' Q1 results complicate
Why it matters: The headline-grabbing profit drops mask a split-screen reality: Exxon's adjusted profit was actually $8.8bn and both companies beat expectations, suggesting the pain is accounting-driven, not operational. Meanwhile BP doubled its profits through trading and pump prices hit $4.39 — exposing a sharp divergence between oil majors' paper losses and consumers' real costs, with windfall tax calls already gaining ground in Europe.
