Profits at American oil giants Exxon Mobil and Chevron fall in tandem with waning energy demand

Exxon Mobil’s first quarter profit slumped to the lowest level in years, stung by weaker crude prices and higher costs.

The oil and gas giant earned $7.71 billion, or $1.76 per share, for the three months ended March 31. It earned $8.22 billion, or $2.06 per share, in the year-ago period.

The results topped Wall Street expectations, but Exxon does not adjust its reported results based on one-time events such as asset sales. Analysts polled by Zacks Investment Research expected earnings of $1.74 per share.

Revenue totaled $83.13 billion, which fell short of the $84.15 billion that analysts were calling for.

Chevron also reported its lowest first-quarter profits in years, with per-share adjusted profit falling to $2.18 per share on revenue of $47.61 billion. Similar to Exxon, Chevron does not adjust its reported results based on one-time events such as asset sales. Analysts predicted earnings of $2.15 per share on revenue of $48.66 billion.

The last time first-quarter profits were this low for Exxon was in 2022 and for Chevron, in 2021.

This week, a barrel of U.S. benchmark crude fell below $60, a level at which many producers can no longer turn a profit.

“In this uncertain market, our shareholders can be confident in knowing that we’re built for this,” Chairman and CEO Darren Woods said in a statement Friday. “The work we’ve done to transform our company over the past eight years positions us to excel in any environment.”

U.S. benchmark crude is down 18% this year and Brent, the international benchmark, is right about there as well. This week, BP and Shell also reported falling first quarter profits.

Oil prices plummeted last month, at one point sinking to a four-year low in anticipation of slowing economic growth due to a burgeoning trade war.

U.S. crude and Brent fell again Friday by more than 1%. A barrel of U.S. crude now costs $58.30, down almost 30% from this time last year.

Trump announced far-reaching tariffs on nearly all U.S. trading partners April 2 and then reversed himself a few days later after a market meltdown, suspending the import taxes for 90 days. Amid the uncertainty for both U.S. consumers and businesses, the Commerce Department said Wednesday that the U.S. economy shrank 0.3% from January through March, the first drop in three years.

Tariffs on steel and other materials, used for everything from tools to drilling and storage, can have an outsized impact on oil companies and amplify the detrimental effect of falling oil and gas prices.

Those falling oil prices signal pessimism about economic growth and can be a harbinger of a recession as manufacturers cut production, businesses cut travel costs and families rethink vacation plans.

And there appears to be little appetite for turn off the spigots by some of the world's largest producers.

In December eight members of the OPEC+ alliance of oil exporting countries signaled they would not cut production as they compete with production from non-allied oil producing countries.

The OPEC+ members decided at the time to postpone production increases that had been scheduled to take effect Jan. 1. The plan had been to start gradually restoring 2.2 million barrels per day over the course of 2025.

That process was pushed back to April 1 and production increases will gradually take place over 18 months until October 2026.

Shares of Exxon Mobil, Chevron and BP fell after the opening bell, while Shell rose.