Chevron Corporation at the weekend reported a drop in its fourth quarter earnings to $3.5 billion, compared with $4.9 billion in the 2013 fourth quarter.
According to its financial results, foreign currency effects increased earnings in the 2014 quarter by $432 million, compared with an increase of $202 million a year earlier.
Full-year 2014 earnings were $19.2 billion compared with $21.4 billion in 2013, while sales and other operating revenues in fourth quarter 2014 were $42 billion, compared to $54 billion in the year-ago period.
The Chairman of Chevron Corporation, Mr. John Watson said the company’s 2014 earnings were down from the previous year, largely due to the sharp decline in crude oil prices.
“Improved downstream results and higher gains on asset sales related to our divestment program partially offset the effect of lower crude prices. In 2014, we continued to fund investments in key major capital projects under construction and raised the dividend payout on our common shares for the 27th consecutive year,” Watson said.
“We enter 2015 with the financial strength to meet the challenges of a volatile crude price environment and with significant efforts underway to manage to a lower cost structure and capital spend rate.”
“We had a number of operational successes in 2014,” Watson continued.
“We had first production from the Jack/St. Malo and Tubular Bells deepwater developments in the Gulf of Mexico and the Bibiyana gas expansion project in Bangladesh. In Australia, our Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG projects continue to reach important construction milestones. We also continue to make progress on our shale and tight resource developments in the Permian Basin, Argentina and Canada. At the same time, we had one of our best exploration years, with important discoveries in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, Australia, West Africa and the Permian Basin, which add to our development queue for the future.”
Watson commented that the company added approximately 840 million barrels of net oil-equivalent proved reserves in 2014. These additions, which are subject to final reviews, equate to approximately 89 percent of net oil-equivalent production for the year. The largest additions were for the Permian Basin in the United States and the Gorgon Project in Australia.
Worldwide net oil-equivalent production was 2.58 million barrels per day in fourth quarter 2014, unchanged from the 2013 fourth quarter. Production increases from project ramp-ups in the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Nigeria and Bangladesh were offset by normal field declines, and the effect of asset sales.
US upstream earnings of $432 million in fourth quarter 2014 were down $371 million from a year earlier, as higher gains on asset sales and higher crude oil production were more than offset by sharply lower crude oil realizations and higher depreciation expense.
The company’s average sales price per barrel of crude oil and natural gas liquids was $66 in fourth quarter 2014, down from $90 a year ago.
The average sales price of natural gas was $3.34 per thousand cubic feet, essentially unchanged from last year’s fourth quarter.
Net oil-equivalent production of 673,000 barrels per day in fourth quarter 2014 was up 23,000 barrels per day, or 4 percent, from a year earlier. Production increases from project ramp-ups in the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico, the Marcellus Shale in western Pennsylvania, and the Gulf of Mexico were partially offset by normal field declines.
The net liquids component of oil-equivalent production increased 5 percent in the 2014 fourth quarter to 462,000 barrels per day, while net natural gas production increased slightly to 1.27 billion cubic feet per day.
Thisday
