Shell, BP, TotalEnergies, Eni, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips get their hands on total profits of more than $29 billion

With energy prices hitting their lowest level this year during the third quarter of 2024 given the uncertainties surrounding the outlook for global oil demand made more complex by geopolitical, climate change, and other challenges, the European and U.S. oil majors – the UK’s duo Shell and BP, France’s TotalEnergies, Norway’s Equinor, and Italy’s Eni alongside U.S.-based trio: ExxonMobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips – have posted strong sets of results even though they collected around $4.7 billion less in combined profit during the quarter, which amounts to about 29.2 billion, compared to $33.9 billion gathered in the prior quarter.

While some, like the International Energy Agency (IEA), claim that geopolitical upheavals are bringing home the need for faster expansion of clean energy, others are convinced these challenges reinforce the necessity of clinging to proven technologies and sources of supply, such as oil and gas alongside LNG, which have earned their stripes and shown they can keep the lights on regardless of the whims of the weather while exploring new energy options.

In line with this, Mike Sommers, American Petroleum Institute’s President and CEO, who recently highlighted the need to secure America’s energy advantage through domestic resources rather than relying on other regions at a time of rising worldwide geopolitical volatility, called for policies that ensure the U.S. could meet “energy needs tomorrow, not just today.”

Opponents of fossil fuels cite New InfluenceMap research and similar works to raise the alarm over the oil and gas industry’s alleged playbook of narratives and arguments that contradict so-called science-aligned policy, which is employed to “systematically oppose, weaken, and delay” the energy transition since at least 1967 as part of their advocacy repertoire against renewable energy and other clean and low-emission alternatives that threaten to undermine their position.

Based on the IEA’s recent findings, the natural gas demand is rising at a stronger rate this year than in the previous two due to the turmoil of the global energy crisis but new gas supplies coming to market in 2024 remain limited as a result of the relatively slow growth of LNG production while geopolitical tensions fuel price volatility.

Keisuke Sadamori, IEA’s Director of Energy Markets and Security, commented: “The growth we’re seeing in global gas demand this year and next reflects the gradual recovery from a global energy crisis that hit markets hard. But the balance between demand and supply trends is fragile, with clear risks of future volatility. Producers and consumers must work together closely to navigate these uncertain times while taking into account the need to advance clean energy transitions to ensure a secure and sustainable future.”

A report from the International Energy Agency recently predicted that global growth of renewables up to the end of the decade is set to match the entire current power capacity of major economies, paving the way for the world to come closer to its goal of tripling renewables. This aligns with the IEA’s ‘World Energy Outlook 2024,’ which pinpoints critical choices facing governments and consumers as a time of “more ample supplies nears and surging electricity demand reshapes energy security.”

This report delves into fragilities in the current global energy system, such as geopolitical strains and regional conflicts, which are said to lay bare the necessity for “stronger policies and greater investments to accelerate and expand the transition to cleaner and more secure technologies.”

Fatih Birol, IEA Executive Director, remarked: “In the second half of this decade, the prospect of more ample – or even surplus – supplies of oil and natural gas, depending on how geopolitical tensions evolve, would move us into a very different energy world from the one we have experienced in recent years during the global energy crisis. It implies downward pressure on prices, providing some relief for consumers that have been hit hard by price spikes.

“The breathing space from fuel price pressures can provide policymakers with room to focus on stepping up investments in clean energy transitions and removing inefficient fossil fuel subsidies. This means government policies and consumer choices will have huge consequences for the future of the energy sector and for tackling climate change.”

On the other hand, OPEC’s ‘World Oil Outlook (WOO)’ from September 2024 underscored the domination of fossil fuels in the global sphere of energy supply up to 2030, when they are expected to represent 77% of the energy mix. The cartel claims that the IEA’s ‘World Energy Outlook (WEO),’ which projects a 75% share for fossil fuels in 2030, a spike from the 73% share previously reported in the WEO 2023, confirms its projections of higher fossil fuels use.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has confirmed the expected shift in energy markets in the coming years. While highlighting that the world could see relatively ample supplies of key fuels and technologies, the IEA also warned about geopolitical risks that are expected to remain. Therefore, it is adamant in its belief that governments and consumers’ reactions would have major consequences for energy and climate developments.

The net-zero zest’s intensity switches gears with each election and political change, thus, drastic rewritings of the global energy mix are not likely to be on the cards with the current political leaders on the stage, especially not as the world is grappling with geopolitical implications of a potential escalation in the already conflict-ridden Middle East, the treat of a new world order being forged as the fabric of the existing one continues to be eroded.

Even though renewables will continue to eat into the fossil fuels demand developing economies and complex sectors are likely to sustain long-term hydrocarbon use in the foreseeable future.

Shell, BP, TotalEnergies, and Eni raked in $13.8 billion and Equinor $1.9 billion in profit during the second quarter of 2024, which is $15.7 billion in total or $1.7 billion less than $14 billion in Q3 2024. During the first nine months of 2024, the five European players got hold of $47.6 billion, compared to $79.71 billion during the same period in 2023, representing a difference of $32.11 billion.

As the income attributable to its shareholders totaled $4.3 billion in Q3 2024, compared to $3.5 billion in the second quarter of 2024 and $7.04 billion in Q3 2023, Shell explained that the 4% decrease reflected lower refining margins, realized oil prices and higher operating expenses partly offset by favorable tax movements and higher volumes from the Integrated Gas business.

Based on the company’s results, Q3 2024 income attributable to its shareholders also entailed unfavorable movements relating to an accounting mismatch due to fair value accounting of commodity derivatives, charges related to redundancy and restructuring, and net impairment charges and reversals. These items are included in identified items amounting to a net loss of $1.3 billion in the quarter, compared with identified items in the second quarter of 2024 which amounted to a net loss of $2.7 billion.

The firm’s income attributable to its shareholders was $20.1 billion in the first nine months of 2024 which is 4% less than $20.9 billion in 2023, reflecting lower refining margins, LNG trading, and optimization margins, realized LNG and gas prices as well as lower trading and optimization margins of power and pipeline gas in Renewables and Energy Solutions, partly offset by lower operating expenses, higher Marketing margins and volumes, higher realized Chemicals margins, and higher Integrated Gas and Upstream volumes.

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Furthermore, the income attributable to Shell’s shareholders in the first nine months of 2024 also included net impairment charges and reversals, reclassifications from equity to profit and loss of cumulative currency translation differences related to funding structures, unfavorable movements relating to an accounting mismatch due to fair value accounting of commodity derivatives, and charges related to redundancy and restructuring, partly offset by favorable differences in exchange rates and inflationary adjustments on deferred tax.

These charges, reclassifications, and movements are included in identified items amounting to a net loss of $4.6 billion. This compares with identified items in the first nine months of 2023 which amounted to a net loss of $2.2 billion. Total shareholder distributions in the quarter amounted to $5.7 billion comprising repurchases of shares of $3.5 billion and cash dividends paid to Shell’s shareholders of $2.2 billion.

Wael Sawan, Shell’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), commented: “Shell delivered another set of strong results. We continue to deliver more value with less emissions, whilst enhancing the resilience of our balance sheet. Today, we announce another $3.5 billion buyback programme for the next three months, making this the 12th consecutive quarter in which we have announced $3 billion or more in buybacks.”

The UK player has now completed $3.5 billion of share buybacks announced in the second quarter of 2024 and plans to complete a share buyback program of $3.5 billion by the fourth quarter 2024 results announcement. The UK giant’s adjusted earnings of $6 billion in Q3 2024, which were down from $6.3 billion in Q2 2024 and $6.2 billion in Q3 2023, alongside its adjusted EBITDA of $16 billion in Q3 2024, which was less than $16.8 billion in Q2 2024 but higher than $16.3 billion in 3Q 2023, were driven by the same factors as income attributable to its shareholders.

The same factors also apply to the adjusted earnings of $20.05 billion for the first nine months of 2024, a 4% decline in comparison with $20.94 billion for the same period in 2023, and adjusted EBITDA of $51.52 billion in the first nine months of 2024, 1% lower than $52.2 billion for the first half of 2023, were driven by the same factors as income attributable to the UK giant’s shareholders and adjusted for identified items and the cost of supplies adjustment of positive $0.3 billion.

Equinor delivered an adjusted operating income of $6.89 billion in Q3 2024, a 13% drop from $7.48 in Q2 2024, which is also lower than $7.93 in Q3 2023. The adjusted operating income for the first nine months of 2024 amounted to $21.9 billion, signifying a decrease of 21% from $27.65 billion in 2023.

The Norwegian energy giant’s net operating income for the third quarter of 2024 was $6.91 billion, reduced by 7% from $7.66 billion and $7.5 billion. The result for the nine months brings $22.2 billion, which is 18% lower than $27 billion.

The firm’s net income was $2.29 billion in Q3 2024, more than the $1.9 billion seen in Q2 2024 and 9% lower than $2.5 billion from Q3 2023. The company’s net income for the first nine months of 2024 was $6.83 billion, down 27% from $9.3 billion in 2023.

The adjusted net income was $2.19 billion in Q3 2023, compared to $2.42 billion in Q2 2024 and $2.9 billion in Q3 2023. Equinor’s adjusted net income for the first nine months of 2024 was $7.44 billion, which is 21% less than $9.48 billion in 2023.

Anders Opedal, President and CEO of Equinor, commented: “With solid operational performance and results, we are well on track to deliver strong cashflow from operations in line with what we said at the capital markets update in February. Over time, we have upgraded the capacity in the gas value chain. This has contributed to an all-time high production from the Troll field in the gas year.

“In the quarter, the Johan Sverdrup field delivered a production record of more than 756,000 barrels of oil in one day and reached the milestone of one billion barrels produced since the start-up five years ago. This strengthens our position to deliver safe and reliable energy to Europe. We continue to invest in renewables and develop low carbon value chains. In the quarter, the world’s first commercial storage facility, Northern Lights, was completed and is now ready to receive CO₂ from customers.”

BP reported an underlying replacement cost (RC) profit of $2.27 billion in Q3 2024, compared with $2.76 billion for the previous quarter and $3.3 billion in the third quarter of 2023, reflecting weaker realized refining margins, a weak oil trading result, and lower liquids realizations, partly offset by higher gas realizations. The gas marketing and trading results were average.

Regarding the first nine months of 2024, the oil majors underlying RC profit was $7.75 billion compared to $10.85 billion in 2023. The firm’s reported profit for the quarter was $0.2 billion, compared with a loss of $0.1 billion for the second quarter of 2024 and a profit of $4.86 billion for Q3 2023.

The reported result for the third quarter is adjusted for inventory holding losses of $1.2 billion (pre-tax) and a net adverse impact of adjusting items of $1.6 billion (pre-tax) to derive the underlying RC profit. The pre-tax adjustments include impairments of $1.7 billion and favorable fair value accounting effects of $0.4 billion. The UK oil major’s reported profit for the first nine months of 2024 was $2.34 billion, which is $12.53 billion lower than $14.87 billion in 2023.

Murray Auchincloss, BP’s CEO, underlined: “We have made significant progress since we laid out our six priorities earlier this year to make BP simpler, more focused and higher value. In oil and gas, we see the potential to grow through the decade with a focus on value over volume. We also have a deep belief in the opportunity afforded by the energy transition – we have established a number of leading positions and will continue high-grading our investments to ensure they compete with the rest of our business. I am absolutely clear that the actions we are taking will grow the value of BP.”

TotalEnergies claims that it has proven its resiliency in a volatile oil environment thanks to its integrated model with $4.1 billion adjusted net income for the third quarter of 2024, which is 13% lower than $4.47 billion in Q3 2023. The firm got $13.9 billion for the first nine months of the year, compared to $27.4 billion in the first nine months of 2023.

Patrick Pouyanné, TotalEnergies’ CEO, elaborated: “This resilience is firstly underpinned by Exploration & Production, posting solid adjusted net operating income of $2.5 billion, down only 7%, stable cash flow of $4.3 billion and an attractive return on capital employed of 15.6%. During the third quarter, Upstream production was 2.41 Mboe/d, benefiting from the ramp up of Mero 2 in Brazil that partially offset production losses at Ichtys LNG and in Libya. In the third quarter, TotalEnergies commenced production from the high-margin Anchor oil project in the US, as well as from the Fenix gas project in Argentina.

“The company also launched the GranMorgu project in Suriname, which will support its production growth target of 3%/year through 2030. Integrated LNG achieved adjusted net operating income of $1.1 billion and cash flow of $0.9 billion, with gas and LNG trading not fully benefiting from markets characterized by low volatility. TotalEnergies continues to strengthen future cash flows by successfully marketing its LNG volumes through signing several medium-term sales contracts in Asia this quarter.”

Eni recorded an adjusted net profit of €1.3 billion or $1.4 billion during Q3 2024, which dropped by 30% compared to €1.8 billion or $1.96 billion. During the first nine months of 2024, the firm collected €4.37 billion or about $4.75 billion, down 34% from €6.66 billion or approximately $7.24 billion in 2023.

Claudio Descalzi, Eni’s CEO, underscored: “In Q3, by delivering a performance ahead of expectations, we have again demonstrated the resilience of our business model thanks to our increasingly advantaged asset portfolio, stringent cost and capital discipline and strategic focus on growth and value creation. We delivered an excellent cash flow and profitability performance in a less supportive trading environment. Importantly, we maintained leverage at 22%, whilst also speeding up our buyback plans. We continue to make clear strategic progress across our portfolio.

“We have increased our upstream production alongside investing for the next phase of growth, including gaining approval for the plan of development on our large Indonesian projects. Our satellite strategy continues to evolve and we are delighted to confirm the €2.9 bln investment by KKR into Enilive, which builds on the transaction concluded at Plenitude earlier in the year and demonstrates our ability to attract investment, confirming the value we are delivering. The creation of our new UK E&P satellite with Ithaca Energy is the next step to support our growth.”

Last quarter, the U.S. oil majors split a $16.2 billion profit pie, however, their current one is $1 billion short of that amount. ConocoPhillips revealed third-quarter 2024 earnings of $2.1 billion, compared with third-quarter 2023 earnings of $2.8 billion. Excluding special items, third-quarter 2024 adjusted earnings were $2.1 billion, compared with third-quarter 2023 adjusted earnings of $2.6 billion.

The U.S. player’s nine-month 2024 earnings were $6.9 billion compared with nine-month 2023 earnings. Nine-month 2024 adjusted earnings were $6.8 billion, compared with nine-month 2023 adjusted earnings of $7.8 billion.

Ryan Lance, Chairman and CEO of ConocoPhillips, outlined: “ConocoPhillips continues to demonstrate strong operational performance, surpassing the high end of our production guidance during the quarter, while executing on our returns-focused value proposition.

“We are also raising our ordinary dividend, increasing our share repurchase authorization and are on track to distribute at least $9 billion to shareholders for 2024. We still anticipate closing the planned acquisition of Marathon Oil this quarter and expect to significantly exceed our initial $500 million synergy guidance.”

ExxonMobil‘s net profits of $8.61 billion in the third quarter of 2024 are down 5% from $9.07 billion in the same period a year ago. The firm collected $26.07 billion during the first nine months of 2024 compared to $28.38 billion in 2023.

Darren Woods, ExxonMobil’s Chairman and CEO, highlighted: “We delivered one of our strongest third quarters in a decade. Our industry-leading results¹ continue to demonstrate how our enterprise-wide transformation is improving the structural earnings power of the company. In the Upstream, we’ve doubled the profitability of the barrels we produce on a constant price basis. In Product Solutions, we’ve high-graded our refining footprint and increased high-value product sales.

“And across the entire company, we’ve achieved $11.3 billion of structural cost savings since 2019. Our strategy is delivering leading returns of 20% so far this year for our shareholders, and we are continuing that growth with a 4% increase in our quarterly dividend payment announced today. We’ve now increased our annual dividend for 42 years in a row, a claim that less than 4% of the S&P 500 companies can make. Furthermore, we lead industry in total shareholder returns for the past 3, 5 and 10 years.”

Chevron Corporation reported earnings of $4.5 billion for the third quarter of 2024, compared with $6.5 billion in the third quarter of 2023. The firm gathered $14.4 billion during the first nine months of 2024 compared to $19.11 billion in the same period last year.

Mike Wirth, Chevron’s Chairman and CEO, “We delivered strong financial and operational results, started up key projects in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and returned record cash to shareholders this quarter.  Worldwide net oil-equivalent production increased 7 percent from last year as U.S. and Permian Basin production set another quarterly record. Chevron started up key projects in Anchor, Jack/St. Malo and Tahiti fields this quarter.

“These projects, combined with additional project start-ups through 2025, are expected to grow U.S. Gulf of Mexico production to 300,000 barrels of net oil-equivalent per day by 2026. We are also taking steps to optimize our portfolio and reduce operating costs to deliver superior long-term value to shareholders.”

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