Exxon Mobil Corp posted a net loss of $20.1 billion or $4.70 per share in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to the company’s press release. The loss was a slump from $5.69 billion profit a year earlier.
- Exxon’s historic loss resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic, which also reduced the company’s shale gas properties by more than $20 billion.
- Exxon had a net annual loss of $22.5 billion in 2020 on the write-down and losses in oil production and refining, down from a full-year profit of $14.34 billion in 2019.
- The fourth quarter’s capital and exploration expenditures were $4.8 billion, bringing full-year spending to $21.4 billion, $9.8 billion lower than the previous year.
- Project spending fell almost a third in 2020 and will be near the bottom of the company’s $16-19 billion forecast this year and rise as much as $25 billion from 2022 through 2025.
- Exxon’s oil and gas output was 3.7 million barrels of oil and gas per day in Q4, down 8% from a year earlier.
- Besides the pandemic, Exxon is under pressure from environmentalists and activist investors pushing for an overhaul and a strategy to transition to cleaner fuels.
- Despite the challenges Exxon is facing, analysts believe the willingness to cut costs to pay a dividend will play well with investors.
- Exxon projects doubling of Permian Basin output to 700,000 barrels per day by 2025, down from the million-barrel target it set for 2024.
- Exxon will also invest $3 billion on lower-emission solutions through 2025.
Exxon Mobil stock is currently gaining. XOM: NYSE is up 2.63%
