ConocoPhillips Profit Jumps To Over $5 Billion

U.S. supermajor ConocoPhillips has reported a rise in second-quarter 2022 earnings. The company earned $5.1 billion compared with second-quarter 2021 earnings of $2.1 billion.

Excluding special items, second-quarter 2022 adjusted earnings were $5.1 billion compared with second-quarter 2021 adjusted earnings of $1.7 billion. Special items for the current quarter were comprised of gains on asset sales including contingent payments related to prior dispositions, partially offset by a loss on debt extinguishment and a Norway tax reform-related adjustment.

ConocoPhillips announced a $5 billion increase in planned 2022 return of capital to $15 billion. The company declared both a third-quarter ordinary dividend of 46 cents per share, payable September 1, 2022, and a fourth-quarter variable return of cash payment of $1.40 per share. Generated cash provided by operating activities was $7.9 billion and cash from operations was $7.8 billion.

“The second quarter delivered strong financial results and presented outstanding opportunities to accelerate progress on our Triple Mandate to reliably and responsibly deliver oil and gas production to meet energy transition pathway demand, deliver competitive returns on and of capital for our shareholders, and achieve our net-zero operational emissions ambition,” said Ryan Lance, chairman and chief executive officer.

“We’re increasing our targeted 2022 return to shareholders by an additional $5 billion while taking steps to meet transition demand with recent announcements to expand our global LNG portfolio. We also progressed our ESG priorities by committing to an important initiative to verifiably measure and report methane emissions and published both our 2021 Sustainability and Human Capital Management reports to share how we’re meeting those priorities,” Lance added.

The supermajor expanded its global LNG portfolio through participation in QatarEnergy’s North Field East LNG project and announced a non-binding Heads of Agreement with Sempra Infrastructure with opportunities to participate in large-scale LNG projects, an LNG offtake of approximately 5 million tons per annum and related carbon capture activities.

ConocoPhillips delivered second-quarter production of 1.7 billion boepd while successfully completing planned maintenance turnarounds. The company also continued progress toward its $5 billion debt reduction target through $1.8 billion of debt retirements during the quarter, now totaling $3 billion since announcing the target.

The U.S. firm ended the quarter with cash and short-term investments of $8.5 billion and completed $0.4 billion of noncore asset sales during the quarter.

Big Oil companies that have announced their second quarter results – ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Shell, TotalEnergies, and Eni – produced a combined profit of over $64 billion. With ConocoPhillips being the last of the Big Oil to report its results and having $5.1 billion in earnings, the Big Oil combined profit for the quarter was just under $70 billion.

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