US supermajor Chevron reported earnings of $7.7 billion ($3.85 per share – diluted) for the second quarter 2011 on Friday, compared with $5.4 billion ($2.70 per share – diluted) in the 2010 second quarter.
Sales and other operating revenues in the second quarter 2011 were $67 billion, up from $51 billion in the year-ago period, mainly due to higher prices for crude oil and refined products.
“Our second quarter financial performance was very strong,” said Chairman and CEO John Watson. “Earnings gains versus last year’s quarter were primarily in our oil and gas exploration and production business, resulting from higher crude oil prices on world markets.”
Watson commented, “We continued to advance our major capital projects, resumed important exploration and development drilling activity in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico and acquired new upstream resource opportunities in the second quarter.”
Worldwide net oil-equivalent production was 2.69 million barrels per day in the second quarter 2011, down from 2.75 million barrels per day in the 2010 second quarter.
Production increases from project ramp-ups in Canada and the United States and new volumes stemming from the acquisition of Atlas Energy were more than offset by an approximately 40,000 barrels per day negative effect of higher prices on volumes related to cost-recovery and variable-royalty contract terms, and normal field declines.
U.S. upstream earnings of $1.95 billion in the second quarter 2011 were up $860 million from a year earlier. The benefit of higher crude oil realizations was partly offset by higher operating expenses.
The company’s average sales price per barrel of crude oil and natural gas liquids was $104 in the second quarter 2011, compared with $71 a year ago. The average sales price of natural gas was $4.35 per thousand cubic feet, up from $4.01 in last year’s second quarter.
Net oil-equivalent production of 694,000 barrels per day in the second quarter 2011 was down 2 percent, or 14,000 barrels per day, from a year earlier. The decrease in production was associated with normal field declines and maintenance-related downtime. Partially offsetting this decrease was production from the acquisition of Atlas Energy, Inc. and increases at Perdido in the Gulf of Mexico. The net liquids component of oil-equivalent production decreased 2 percent in the 2011 second quarter to 478,000 barrels per day, while net natural gas production declined 1 percent to 1.30 billion cubic feet per day.
