Oil Major, Chevron has posted a loss of $588 million in the fourth quarter of 2015, compared with earnings of $3.5 billion in the 2014 fourth quarter (Q4).
Foreign currency effects boosted earnings in the 2015 quarter by $46 million, compared with an increase of $432 million a year earlier, the company said .
Full-year 2015 earnings were $4.6 billion compared with $19.2 billion in 2014 and sales and other operating revenues in Q4 2015 were $28 billion, compared to $42 billion in the year-ago period, the statement also said.
“Our 2015 earnings were down significantly from the previous year, reflecting a nearly 50 per cent year-on-year decline in crude oil prices. We’re taking significant action to improve earnings and cash flow in this low price environment. Operating expenses and capital spending were reduced to $9 billion in 2015 from 2014, and I expect similarly large reductions again in 2016. In addition, asset sales proceeds were $6 billion in 2015, with additional sales planned for 2016 and 2017,” the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO), Chevron, John Watson, said.
He added, “Improved refinery reliability allowed us to capture the benefits of a favorable margin environment and post excellent downstream results for the year. We continued to reshape the downstream portfolio with well-timed asset sales and good progress on petrochemical investments. We advanced our upstream major capital projects.
“We had first production from two deepwater projects in Africa, and ramped up production from Jack/St. Malo in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico and our shale and tight resources in the Permian Basin.”
