(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors) () the second-biggest U.S. oil company by market value behind reported a 43 percent decline in first-quarter profit due to tumbling oil prices. Shares fell.
Net income fell to $2.57 billion or $1.37 per share in the January-to-March quarter from $4.51 billion or $2.36 per share a year earlier the San Ramon California-based company said in a statement today.
However the result was much better than analysts' expectations of $0.79 per share according to Capital IQ.
Shares skidded 1.8 percent to $109.08 at 10:30 a.m. in New York extending losses over the past year to 12.5 percent.
Profit from ’s oil refineries doubled during the quarter to $1.42 billion as the crude-market rout cheapened the feedstock used to manufacture gasoline and diesel. But the $1.56 billion earned by ’s oil- and gas-producing business was the worst performance since the second quarter of 2009.
posted a loss in its United States oil production division a key indicator that the country is one of its highest cost areas.
The oil company posted revenue of $34.56 billion in the period.
Global oil-equivalent production in the quarter rose to 2.68 million barrels a day up from 2.59 million barrels a year ago.
continued slashing costs during the first quarter reducing operating expenses by 9 percent.
"We're taking a number of deliberate actions to lower our cost structure and I expect these efforts to increasingly show through in our financial results as the year progresses" chief executive officer John Watson said in the statement.
Brent crude the benchmark for most of the oil traded outside the U.S. averaged about $55 a barrel during the first quarter down from more than $107 a year earlier.
The company has said it would trim spending and stop buying back its shares as the collapse in oil prices has wiped billions of dollars from its cash flow.
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