Released November 05, 2025 | SUGAR LAND
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Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)
Click on the image a right to see third-quarter earnings for the four oil supermajors.
Production increased for three companies while a fourth, BP, had a slight decline during the just-completed period. But soft worldwide demand and weak prices for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Brent crude oil pressured revenue and earnings for Exxon, Chevron and BP. Shell's higher profits stemmed from improved performance in is gas and chemicals units.
Click on the images at right to see quarterly average prices for WTI and Brent crude oil.
In their earnings statements, officials tended to emphasize production gains, cost management results, shareholder payouts and new projects.
Under generally accepted accounting standards (GAAP), quarterly profits for the four companies were down approximately 5%, to approximately $18.6 billion from $19.7 billion in the comparable year-earlier quarter.
Results for each company are summarized below.
The company said lowered third-quarter earnings reflected weaker crude prices, bottom-of-cycle chemical margins, higher depreciation, growth costs and lower base volumes from strategic divestments. These impacts were partially offset by a variety of positive factors, including advantaged volume growth in the Permian and Guyana, stronger refining margins, record refinery throughput, additional structural cost savings, and favorable timing effects.
Worldwide production, on an oil-equivalent basis, rose to 4.8 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOE/d) from 4.6 million BOE/d in the second quarter of this year. Most of the BOE increase came from oil production. The oil giant said it started up eight of 10 key projects year to date, and the remaining two were on track.
Compared to the prior quarter, earnings from global exploration and production (upstream), refining and marketing (downstream) and chemicals rose while profits from specialty products fell slightly. Third-quarter net charges of $1.2 billion increased $467 million versus the second quarter, eroding otherwise positive operating results.
In announcing earnings, Exxon said it increased its common stock dividend 4%, to $1.03 per share, effective in the fourth quarter. Exxon also significantly increased its capital expenditures (capex) during the quarter, to $8.6 billion from $6.3 billion in the second quarter of this year. Year to date, the company's capex increased to approximately $20.9 billion from $18.21 for the first three quarters of 2024.
Shareholder distributions during the quarter totaled $9.4 billion, including $4.2 billion of dividends and $5.1 billion of share repurchases, the company said October 31 when it reported earnings. Cash payments to investors exceeded net earnings by nearly $2 billion, which the company funded by selling assets and drawing down on retained earnings. Exxon's retained earnings fell to $13.8 billion at September 30 from $23 billion at December 31, 2024.
The company said it achieved about $2.2 billion in structural cost reductions for the first three quarters of 2025 compared to the comparable year-earlier period. The company has recorded about $14.2 billion in cumulative structural cost reductions compared to 2019, when the cost reduction program began. Exxon's goal is to reduce structural costs by a cumulative amount of $18 billion by 2030, compared to 2019, and it said it is on track to achieve those reductions.
The company explained is third-quarter performance this way: "Reported earnings decreased compared to last year primarily due to lower crude oil prices, severance costs and other transaction costs related to the Hess acquisition, partly offset by higher margins on refined product sales."
Third-quarter U.S. and worldwide production hit new company records, up 27% and 21%, respectively, from last year, leading to strong cash flow in a low-price environment.
Company officials said the integration of Hess Corporation was "progressing well." Capex increased slightly, to $4.4 billion from $4.1 billion in the July-September 2024 period. The increased stemmed partly from outlays for legacy Hess assets after the acquisition closed his past summer.
The acquisition of Hess boosted Chevron's third-quarter production by about 495,000 BOE/d. Overall production around the world rose to slightly over 4 million BOE/d, split evenly between overseas and domestic production. Most of that BOE production was liquids. Chevron received about $7 less per barrel for its crude in domestic and international markets compared to the year-earlier quarter.
Global natural gas production rose about 11% to 8.9 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) compared to slightly over 8 Bcf/d in the year-earlier July-September period. Chevron's price realizations for domestic gas more than tripled in the just-completed quarter, but that was offset by a slight decline in prices overseas.
Downstream throughput was flat compared to the year-earlier quester, but earnings soared on Chevron's U.S. refineries in the just-completed quarter due to lower operation costs which pumped up profits.
Chevron said it returned $6 billion of cash to shareholders in the quarter, about $2.5 billion more than it earned.
Shell's selling price of Brent crude oil fell between $5 and $11 per barrel, depending on the business unit, compared to the third quarter of 2024. WTI prices also were down about $10 per barrel versus year-earlier results. But natural gas price realizations a Henry Hub, Louisiana, shot up about 42% versus the comparable year-earlier quarter.
Crude oil production rose to about 2.8 million BOE/d in the just-completed period, up fractionally over the July-September 2024 period. Gas production rose slightly to about 7.2 Bcf/d in the recent quarter.
Despite continued market volatility, the London-based supermajor said, "our strong delivery this quarter enables us to commence another $3.5 billion of buybacks for the next three months." That will be the 16th consecutive quarter of at least $3 billion in buybacks.
Payouts to investors during the quarter totaled approximately $5.7 billion, slightly over net earnings for the period. The company repurchased $3.6 billion of its shares and paid and cash dividends of about $2.1 billion. Cash holdings dipped to $33 billion from $39 billion at yearend 2024.
Oil and gas production totaled about 2.4 million BOE/d for the just-completed period, a fractional decline from the comparable year-earlier quarter. Downstream throughput increased about 5.2%, to 1.5 million BBL/d from 1.4 million BBL/d in the July-September 2024 period. Price realizations for crude oil fell about $10 per barrel versus third quarter 2024 while natural gas price realizations rose.
BP Chief Executive Officer Murray Auchincloss said, "All six of the major oil and gas projects planned for 2025 are online, including four ahead of schedule. We've sanctioned our seventh operated production hub in the Gulf of (Mexico) and have had further exploration success. We continue to make good progress to cut costs, strengthen our balance sheet and increase cash flow and returns. We are looking to accelerate delivery of our plans, including undertaking a thorough review of our portfolio to drive simplification and targeting further improvements in cost performance and efficiency. There is much more to do but we are moving at pace, and demonstrating that bp can and will do better for our investors."
The company said it expects asset sales to be above $5 billion for 2025. In the just-completed period, BP repurchased $750 million of its shares. It said it intends to execute another $750 million share buyback over the next here months.
The London-based supermajor paid about $1.4 billion in dividends during the third quarter and bought back approximately $750 million of its shares. Cash out the door to investors, $2.2 billion, equaled quarterly earnings.
Key Takeaways
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Summary
Third-quarter earnings went down for BP, ExxonMobil and Chevron, but rose for Shell.Production Up but Earnings Dip for Most Majors
Third-quarter earnings slid at three large integrated supermajor oil companies - Exxon Mobil Corporation (Spring, Texas), Chevron Corporation (Houston, Texas) and BP plc (London, England) - and quarterly payouts to shareholders outstripped earnings for ExxonMobil, Chevron and Shell plc (London, England), forcing them to use proceeds from asset sales or dig into their retained earnings to fund hefty dividend payments and share buybacks. BP's reported earnings for the quarter equaled its investor payouts.
Click on the image a right to see third-quarter earnings for the four oil supermajors.Production increased for three companies while a fourth, BP, had a slight decline during the just-completed period. But soft worldwide demand and weak prices for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Brent crude oil pressured revenue and earnings for Exxon, Chevron and BP. Shell's higher profits stemmed from improved performance in is gas and chemicals units.
Click on the images at right to see quarterly average prices for WTI and Brent crude oil.In their earnings statements, officials tended to emphasize production gains, cost management results, shareholder payouts and new projects.
Under generally accepted accounting standards (GAAP), quarterly profits for the four companies were down approximately 5%, to approximately $18.6 billion from $19.7 billion in the comparable year-earlier quarter.
Results for each company are summarized below.
ExxonMobil
ExxonMobil earned $7.5 billion for the just-completed quarter, down 13% from year-earlier quarterly earnings of $8.6 billion. Revenue slumped to $85.3 billion from $90 billion in the year-earlier quarter.The company said lowered third-quarter earnings reflected weaker crude prices, bottom-of-cycle chemical margins, higher depreciation, growth costs and lower base volumes from strategic divestments. These impacts were partially offset by a variety of positive factors, including advantaged volume growth in the Permian and Guyana, stronger refining margins, record refinery throughput, additional structural cost savings, and favorable timing effects.
Worldwide production, on an oil-equivalent basis, rose to 4.8 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOE/d) from 4.6 million BOE/d in the second quarter of this year. Most of the BOE increase came from oil production. The oil giant said it started up eight of 10 key projects year to date, and the remaining two were on track.
Compared to the prior quarter, earnings from global exploration and production (upstream), refining and marketing (downstream) and chemicals rose while profits from specialty products fell slightly. Third-quarter net charges of $1.2 billion increased $467 million versus the second quarter, eroding otherwise positive operating results.
In announcing earnings, Exxon said it increased its common stock dividend 4%, to $1.03 per share, effective in the fourth quarter. Exxon also significantly increased its capital expenditures (capex) during the quarter, to $8.6 billion from $6.3 billion in the second quarter of this year. Year to date, the company's capex increased to approximately $20.9 billion from $18.21 for the first three quarters of 2024.
Shareholder distributions during the quarter totaled $9.4 billion, including $4.2 billion of dividends and $5.1 billion of share repurchases, the company said October 31 when it reported earnings. Cash payments to investors exceeded net earnings by nearly $2 billion, which the company funded by selling assets and drawing down on retained earnings. Exxon's retained earnings fell to $13.8 billion at September 30 from $23 billion at December 31, 2024.
The company said it achieved about $2.2 billion in structural cost reductions for the first three quarters of 2025 compared to the comparable year-earlier period. The company has recorded about $14.2 billion in cumulative structural cost reductions compared to 2019, when the cost reduction program began. Exxon's goal is to reduce structural costs by a cumulative amount of $18 billion by 2030, compared to 2019, and it said it is on track to achieve those reductions.
Chevron
In announcing earnings October 31, this Houston-based supermajor said earnings fell 22% to $3.5 billion from $4.5 billion in the year-earlier quarter. Quarterly revenue declined slightly on a year-over-year basis. Results included positive and negative one-time items.The company explained is third-quarter performance this way: "Reported earnings decreased compared to last year primarily due to lower crude oil prices, severance costs and other transaction costs related to the Hess acquisition, partly offset by higher margins on refined product sales."
Third-quarter U.S. and worldwide production hit new company records, up 27% and 21%, respectively, from last year, leading to strong cash flow in a low-price environment.
Company officials said the integration of Hess Corporation was "progressing well." Capex increased slightly, to $4.4 billion from $4.1 billion in the July-September 2024 period. The increased stemmed partly from outlays for legacy Hess assets after the acquisition closed his past summer.
The acquisition of Hess boosted Chevron's third-quarter production by about 495,000 BOE/d. Overall production around the world rose to slightly over 4 million BOE/d, split evenly between overseas and domestic production. Most of that BOE production was liquids. Chevron received about $7 less per barrel for its crude in domestic and international markets compared to the year-earlier quarter.
Global natural gas production rose about 11% to 8.9 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) compared to slightly over 8 Bcf/d in the year-earlier July-September period. Chevron's price realizations for domestic gas more than tripled in the just-completed quarter, but that was offset by a slight decline in prices overseas.
Downstream throughput was flat compared to the year-earlier quester, but earnings soared on Chevron's U.S. refineries in the just-completed quarter due to lower operation costs which pumped up profits.
Chevron said it returned $6 billion of cash to shareholders in the quarter, about $2.5 billion more than it earned.
Shell
Shell earned $5.3 billion in the just-completed period, up about 23% from $4.3 billion in the year-earlier quester. Quarterly revenue fell to $68.1 billion from $71.1 billion. The company reported earnings October 30.Shell's selling price of Brent crude oil fell between $5 and $11 per barrel, depending on the business unit, compared to the third quarter of 2024. WTI prices also were down about $10 per barrel versus year-earlier results. But natural gas price realizations a Henry Hub, Louisiana, shot up about 42% versus the comparable year-earlier quarter.
Crude oil production rose to about 2.8 million BOE/d in the just-completed period, up fractionally over the July-September 2024 period. Gas production rose slightly to about 7.2 Bcf/d in the recent quarter.
Despite continued market volatility, the London-based supermajor said, "our strong delivery this quarter enables us to commence another $3.5 billion of buybacks for the next three months." That will be the 16th consecutive quarter of at least $3 billion in buybacks.
Payouts to investors during the quarter totaled approximately $5.7 billion, slightly over net earnings for the period. The company repurchased $3.6 billion of its shares and paid and cash dividends of about $2.1 billion. Cash holdings dipped to $33 billion from $39 billion at yearend 2024.
BP
BP's third-quarter profit slid to $2.2 billion from $2.3 billion in the comparable year-earlier period, the company said November 4 when it announced earnings. Revenue rose to $48.4 billion from $47.3 billion in the July-September 2024 period. Results were helped by a hefty positive item.Oil and gas production totaled about 2.4 million BOE/d for the just-completed period, a fractional decline from the comparable year-earlier quarter. Downstream throughput increased about 5.2%, to 1.5 million BBL/d from 1.4 million BBL/d in the July-September 2024 period. Price realizations for crude oil fell about $10 per barrel versus third quarter 2024 while natural gas price realizations rose.
BP Chief Executive Officer Murray Auchincloss said, "All six of the major oil and gas projects planned for 2025 are online, including four ahead of schedule. We've sanctioned our seventh operated production hub in the Gulf of (Mexico) and have had further exploration success. We continue to make good progress to cut costs, strengthen our balance sheet and increase cash flow and returns. We are looking to accelerate delivery of our plans, including undertaking a thorough review of our portfolio to drive simplification and targeting further improvements in cost performance and efficiency. There is much more to do but we are moving at pace, and demonstrating that bp can and will do better for our investors."
The company said it expects asset sales to be above $5 billion for 2025. In the just-completed period, BP repurchased $750 million of its shares. It said it intends to execute another $750 million share buyback over the next here months.
The London-based supermajor paid about $1.4 billion in dividends during the third quarter and bought back approximately $750 million of its shares. Cash out the door to investors, $2.2 billion, equaled quarterly earnings.
Key Takeaways
- Third-quarter earnings fell for ExxonMobil, Chevron and BP compared to year-earlier quarterly results, while earnings for Shell rose.
- Price realizations for crude oil and natural gas were generally down, though gas price realizations were higher for BP.
- On a BOE basis, production rose for several companies.
- Shareholder payouts exceeded earnings for Exxon, Chevron and Shell.
About Industrial Info Resources
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).
