Chevron’s earnings up on record production, higher prices

Chevron, the US-based energy company and the operator of the giant Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG projects in Australia, saw its earnings double during the third quarter of 2018. 

The company reported earnings of $4 billion compared to $2 billion in the third quarter of 2017.

“Third quarter earnings more than doubled from a year ago,” chairman and CEO Michael Wirth, said, adding, “our strong financial results reflect higher production and crude oil prices coupled with a continued focus on efficiency and productivity.”

Worldwide net oil-equivalent production was 2.96 million barrels per day in the third quarter of 2018, compared with 2.72 million barrels per day from a year ago.

Wirth noted this is the company’s highest quarterly production ever driven by a ramp-up of Wheatstone LNG in Australia and the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico that pushed the figures 9 percent up over the corresponding quarter last year.

U.S. upstream operations earned $828 million in third quarter 2018, compared with a loss of $26 million a year earlier, with the international upstream operations earning $2.55 billion, compared with $515 million a year ago.

U.S. downstream operations earned $748 million in third quarter 2018, compared with earnings of $640 million a year earlier. International downstream operations earned $625 million in the third quarter of 2018, compared with $1.17 billion a year earlier, Chevron said in its report.

Wirth also added that the quarterly cash flow from operations of $9.6 billion was the highest in nearly five years.