ExxonMobil and Chevron profits surge as oil prices stay high

ExxonMobil and Chevron reported sharply higher third-quarter profits Friday, beating expectations as oil prices remained elevated amid the U.S. war with Iran. The gains came as drivers faced rising gasoline and diesel costs.

ExxonMobil’s profit more than doubled from a year earlier, while Chevron’s earnings rose more than 180%, NBC News reported. Brent crude traded just under $118 a barrel Friday after remaining above $100 for months, according to the outlet.

ExxonMobil reported net income of $3.72 per share for the three months ended in September. Adjusted profit of $4.23 per share exceeded analysts’ average estimate of $4.12, while revenue rose 33% to $113.16 billion, The Guardian reported. The company raised its quarterly dividend to $1.07 and set a $20 billion stock buyback plan.

Chevron earned $9.9 billion, or $5.06 per share, on revenue of $67.8 billion, a 36% increase, according to The Guardian. Its results included one month of production in Venezuela following an accounting change. Chevron announced last month that it would invest $7 billion there over five years.

The Guardian reported that the companies benefited from higher prices and record production, and said Exxon was seeing strong production in its Guyana and Permian Basin fields. NBC News linked elevated oil prices to the U.S. war with Iran. Brent’s Friday price was approaching the $126 peak it reached after the United States and Israel launched the war in late February, the outlet reported.

Fuel costs have also climbed. AAA put the average U.S. price of regular gasoline at $4.20 a gallon, nearly $1.20 more than a year earlier, according to The Guardian. In a Harris poll for the newspaper, 36% of voters named the rising cost of living as the single most important issue in the upcoming midterm elections.

Diesel’s average price was about $6.32 a gallon, up 71% from a year earlier, according to AAA figures cited by The Guardian. NBC News reported that the nationwide average had climbed 78% since the start of the year.

ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods told CNBC that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz had forced ships to find new routes. He also said Ukrainian strikes had taken out about half of Russia’s refining capacity. “That shortage of refining capacity and availability to the world is what’s driving product prices as high as it is,” Woods said, calling diesel “the key crunch point.”

Both companies said they were running refineries at maximum output to make as much diesel as possible, NBC News reported. Exxon’s U.S. Gulf Coast refineries operated at 100% utilization, with diesel production there at its second-highest level on record, according to The Guardian.

President Donald Trump has taken steps aimed at lowering diesel prices, including an order expanding the use of off-road dyed diesel and $150 million in Defense Production Act funding for petroleum production, storage and logistics at refineries. NBC News reported that the moves had not meaningfully reduced prices.

At an Oct. 24 rally, Trump acknowledged higher prices while celebrating gains for the U.S. oil business. “Our country is making hundreds of billions of dollars because of what’s happened in the Middle East,” he said, according to NBC News. He added: “I don’t give a damn: I’m going to say it. We’re making a freaking fortune.”