ExxonMobil says structural earnings improvement contributed to strong second quarter

ExxonMobil Corporation reported its highest second-quarter throughput in 15 years, as well as earnings of $7.9 billion.

The Texas-based company credited structural earnings improvement and expanded leadership in carbon capture and storage as part of its acquisition of Denbury.

“The work we’ve been doing to improve our underlying profitability is reflected in our second-quarter results, which doubled from what we earned in a comparable industry commodity price environment just five years ago,” Darren Woods, chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement.

Woods said Exxon is on track to structurally reduce costs by $9 billion year-end compared to 2019.

In addition, production is up 20% year over year in Guyana and Permian.

“We are playing a leading role in the industry’s energy transition with an agreement to acquire Denbury and with three world-scale CO2 offtake agreements,” Woods said.

The Denbury acquisition gives ExxonMobil one of the largest owned and operating carbon dioxide pipeline networks in the United States, while a partnership with Nucor Corporation allows Exxon to transport and store 5 million metric tons of CO2 for third-party customers.

This is the equivalent of replacing approximately 2 million gasoline-powered cars with electric vehicles, said the news release.

ExxonMobil also formed the Global Business Solutions, ExxonMobil Supply Chain and Global Trading organizations during the second quarter in an effort to lower costs and improve performance.

Year to date

It wasn’t all good news in the ExxonMobil earnings report.

Year-to-date earnings, in particular, are down $4.8 billion compared to the first half of 2022. In the second quarter last year, the company recorded $6.8 billion more in earnings compared to the second quarter of 2023. This was driven by lower crude and natural gas realizations, said the ExxonMobil report.

Still, year-to-date production was 3.7 million oil-equivalent barrels per day, an increase of over 160,000 oil-equivalent barrels per day. LL

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