Oil Majors' $100 Hangover Hurts Profit as Cost Cuts Fall Short
(Bloomberg) -- The world’s biggest oil companies, set to report their worst quarterly earnings in more than a decade, are finding their cost-cutting efforts haven’t matched the decline in crude prices over the past two years.
While producers have been deferring projects, eliminating jobs and freezing salaries, the process will take three years to complete, according to Barclays Plc’s Lydia Rainforth. In the meantime, profits are being hammered.
“A lot of work still needs to be done on costs,” Rainforth, a London-based oil sector analyst, said by phone. “It’s a reflection of how much costs had piled up and how long a process this is.”
For producers from Royal Dutch Shell Plc to Chevron Corp., reeling under the threat of credit-rating downgrades, slashing costs is the surest way of protecting balance sheets. Still, reversing course is proving painful after $100 oil persuaded companies to pump money into expensive areas in search of new deposits, hire more people and rent rigs and services at record rates. Productivity suffered.
Shell, Europe’s biggest oil company, had operating costs of $14.70 a barrel last year when Brent crude averaged $53.60, Barclays said in a report last month. That’s more than double the $6-a-barrel cost in 2005, the last time oil averaged in the $50s, according to the report. BP Plc’s operating expense was $10.40 last year compared with $3.60 in 2005, according to Barclays. The operating costs don’t include capital spending, taxes and royalties paid by producers.
Earnings Outlook
After rising every year from 2010 to 2014, Shell’s costs fell 15 percent last year, according to Barclays. BP’s dropped 19 percent.
That’s not been enough to counter the rout in oil prices.
BP is expected to post an adjusted loss for the first time since the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010, when it reports first-quarter results on April 26, according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Shell, reporting on May 4, is likely to post its weakest adjusted profit in more than a decade.
Exxon Mobil Corp., the world’s biggest oil company, will report the lowest quarterly profit in more than two decades on April 29, according to analysts estimates. Chevron is estimated to report a second consecutive loss the same day. Total SA’s first-quarter adjusted net income is predicted to be the lowest since 2001.
The extent of the work facing oil-major CEOs can be seen at BP. While the British producer’s boss Bob Dudley was one of the first to prepare for the downturn, it still took BP most of 2014 and 2015 to identify where costs could be cut, with full implementation only coming this year, Rainforth said.
The London-based company said in February it had reduced annual cash costs by $3.4 billion compared with 2014 and expected them to be about $7 billion lower in 2017. A BP spokesman declined to comment further.
Shell plans to reduce operating expenditure by $3 billion in 2016 after cutting it by $4 billion last year. The company declined to comment beyond reiterating that it has options to further reduce spending should conditions warrant it. Exxon and Chevron declined to comment.
Total is targeting spending on operating its exploration and production business of $6.50 a barrel of oil equivalent this year, after cutting that to $7.40 last year from $9.90 in 2014, according to a company presentation in February.
12
View Full Article
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.
- How Likely Is an All-Out War in the Middle East Involving the USA?
- Rooftop Solar Now 4th Largest Source of Electricity in Australia
- US Confirms Reimposition of Oil Sanctions against Venezuela
- EU, Industry Players Ink Charter to Meet Solar Energy Targets
- Analyst Says USA Influence on Middle East Seems to be Fading
- Russian Ships to Remain Banned from US Ports
- Brazil Court Reinstates Petrobras Chair to Divided Board
- EIB Lends $425.7 Million for Thuringia's Grid Upgrades
- Var Energi Confirms Oil Discovery in Ringhorne
- Seatrium, Shell Strengthen Floating Production Systems Collaboration
- An Already Bad Situation in the Red Sea Just Got Worse
- What's Next for Oil? Analysts Weigh In After Iran's Attack
- USA Regional Banks Dramatically Step Up Loans to Oil and Gas
- EIA Raises WTI Oil Price Forecasts
- How Likely Is an All-Out War in the Middle East Involving the USA?
- Venezuela Authorities Arrest Two Senior Energy Officials
- Namibia Expects FID on Potential Major Oil Discovery by Yearend
- Oil Markets Were Already Positioned for Iran Attack
- Is The Iran Nuclear Deal Revival Project Dead?
- Petrobras Chairman Suspended
- Oil and Gas Executives Predict WTI Oil Price
- An Already Bad Situation in the Red Sea Just Got Worse
- New China Climate Chief Says Fossil Fuels Must Keep a Role
- Oil and Gas Execs Reveal Where They See Henry Hub Price Heading
- Equinor Makes Discovery in North Sea
- Macquarie Strategists Warn of Large Oil Price Correction
- DOI Announces Proposal for Second GOM Offshore Wind Auction
- Standard Chartered Reiterates $94 Brent Call
- Chevron, Hess Confident Embattled Merger Will Close Mid-2024
- Analysts Flag 'Remarkable Feature' of 2024 Oil Price Rally