REUTERS: Exxon Mobil Corp said on Monday lower natural gas and chemical margins in its second quarter would offset improved crude and refining operations, pointing to flat profits sequentially and down from a year-earlier.
The U.S. oil major said in a securities filing http://bit.ly/2RL5hMp it expected improved crude prices to boost second-quarter profit by US$400 million to US$600 million. However, natural gas prices which have dropped to multi-year lows in the face of tepid demand, were expected to offset it by an equal measure.
Jennifer Rowland, analyst at Edward Jones, expects second-quarter upstream earnings to be weaker compared with a year ago. She lowered the brokerage's profit estimates to 88 cents per share from 95 cents previously. That is below Wall Street's mean estimates of 97 cents and the year-ago quarter's 92 cents a share.Exxon said weaker margins in its chemical business is expected to reduce second-quarter profit by US$100 million to US$300 million over the first quarter.
In April, the company reported first-quarter profit that slumped 49per cent to US$2.4 billion and missed analysts' estimates due to a weakness across its major businesses. Exxon shares, which have risen about 12per cent this year to Friday's close, ended the day off 7 cents a share at US$76.56 compared with a 0.1per cent rise in the S&P 500 Energy index as a result of oil prices that steadied as OPEC extended supply cuts until March 2020 during a meeting in Vienna.