ExxonMobil reported $15.4 billion in third-quarter profit Friday, more than double its earnings a year earlier, with its Gulf Coast refineries running at full capacity and diesel prices doing the rest.
The company earned $3.72 per share, or $4.23 on an adjusted basis, beating Wall Street’s $4.08 estimate. Adjusted net income reached $17.5 billion, making it one of Exxon’s most profitable quarters ever.
Exxon’s energy products business earned $9.05 billion in adjusted profit, up from $4.1 billion in the second quarter. Its U.S. Gulf Coast refinery units operated at 100% utilization, producing their second-highest diesel volumes on record.
The Iran war and Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries have sidelined roughly 10% of global refining capacity, leaving the remaining plants to supply a market desperately short of diesel and other fuels. Refining margins have soared, and Exxon is certainly making the most of them.
The company has also increased the amount of fuel it can produce. Its Gulf Coast distillate output is up approximately 40% since 2019, helped by the $2 billion Beaumont refinery expansion completed in 2023. That project added 250,000 barrels per day of processing capacity, an investment approved years before today’s fuel shortage.
Exxon’s upstream business had a less impressive quarter. Adjusted earnings fell to $7.3 billion from $9.2 billion in the second quarter as crude prices eased. Production held near 4.5 million barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Exxon generated $25.7 billion in operating cash flow and returned $9.4 billion to shareholders through dividends and stock repurchases, including $5.1 billion in buybacks. It also increased its dividend for the 44th consecutive year and announced plans for another $20 billion in share repurchases in 2027.
With Exxon’s Gulf Coast refineries already operating at full capacity, further production increases will be difficult without additional investment. Global diesel supplies remain constrained by refinery damage in the Middle East and Russia, even as crude shipments from the Persian Gulf recover.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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