Chevron Posts Surprise Q4 Loss

Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) reported fourth-quarter and full-year 2015 results before markets opened Friday. For the quarter, the oil and gas supermajor posted a diluted earnings per share loss of $0.31 on revenues of $29.25 billion. In the same period a year ago, the company reported EPS of $1.85 on revenues of $46.09 billion. Fourth-quarter results also compare to the Thomson Reuters consensus estimates for EPS of $0.46 and $28.72 billion in revenues.

For the full year, Chevron reported earnings per share (EPS) of $2.45 and revenues of $129.93 billion, compared with 2014 EPS of $10.14 and revenues of $211.97 billion. Analysts had expected EPS of $3.47 and revenues of $132.59 billion.

Capital spending totaled $34 billion in 2015, down from $40.3 billion in 2014. Chevron announced in October that it expects 2016 capex in a range of $25 billion to $28 billion and further reductions for 2017 and 2018 to a spending range of $20 billion to $24 billion.

U.S. upstream operations posted a loss of $1.95 billion in the fourth quarter, and for the year U.S. upstream operations have lost $4 billion. Chevron attributed the loss to lower crude oil realizations, higher depreciation expenses, higher exploration expenses and lower gains on asset sales, partially offset by higher crude oil production. The increase in depreciation and exploration expenses was primarily due to impairments and project cancellations.

The company’s average U.S. sales price per barrel of crude oil was $38.14 in the quarter and realizations on natural gas liquids totaled $35.33, down from $70.82 and $65.83, respectively, in the year-ago quarter. The realized average natural gas price dropped from $3.34 per thousand cubic feet to $1.54 year over year.

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