Exxon and Chevron quarterly earnings fall despite soaring oil prices
Exxon Mobil and Chevron reported drops in profit in their first quarter despite surging oil prices, a result of stalled deliveries and supply disruptions in the Middle East.Exxon’s quarterly earnings fell to $4.2bn from about $7.7bn the same quarter last year, a decline of about 46%, while Chevron’s profits fell to $2.2bn from about $3.
5bn, down about 37%.Still, both companies beat Wall Street expectations.America’s two largest oil giants are still expected to eventually reap the benefits of soaring oil prices, which reached levels unseen since 2022 this week as the war in Iran continues.In a prepared statement, Exxon said that “timing effects” and volume impacts in the Middle East reduced reported earnings; when excluding those effects, the company reported $8.8bn in profit.
At Chevron, unfavorable timing effects totaled about $3bn for the quarter, according to the company.“One of the things that we called out in our press release was the timing,” Darren Woods, Exxon’s chair and chief executive officer, said in an interview with CNBC on Friday morning.“As you close the quarter in the volatile market, you book the hedges, the paper, but the physical barrels are in inventory until they get delivered.So you get this deferred profit that we wanted to basically highlight, and make sure that our investors understood that the work that we’re actually doing to meet the demands today are resulting in benefit not necessarily booked in the quarter.”At the start of the war, Donald Trump declared on Truth Social: “The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money.
”Certain oil and gas companies are already reaping the benefits.BP announced that its profits more than doubled in the last quarter, crediting “exceptional oil trading” for its highest quarterly profit since 2023 – an announcement that led advocacy groups and some European finance ministers to call for greater taxes on windfall profits.Other earnings reports indicate that it may take longer for oil companies to report clear gains.ConocoPhillips, a partner in Qatar’s state gas company, cut its forecast annual output due to disruptions in Qatar’s liquified natural gas operations caused by the war.Iranian attacks on QatarEnergy LNG’s export plant will take years to repair, state energy officials have said.
Chevron and Exxon’s stock jumped at the start of the war but eased in April as the US and Iran agreed on a ceasefire and the reopening of the strait of Hormuz,And Lockheed Martin, a key defense contractor with the federal government, initially saw its stock jump 25% since the start of the year, but has since dropped to roughly the same levels,Meanwhile, gas prices as the pump continue to climb, with the current average reaching $4,39, up from $3,187 a year ago.
Americans are also facing fears of elevated inflation and slow job growth amid turmoil in the Middle East.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 to Lenny Henry: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead
Meryl Streep stars in the long-awaited sequel to the fashion-industry hit, and the comic, actor and bona fide national treasure returns to the stageThe Devil Wears Prada 2Out nowSequels, for spring? Groundbreaking. OK, but this just happens to be one of the most anticipated sequels of the last decade, with Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt returning to their respective roles of high-fashion supervillain Miranda Priestly, journalist Andy Sachs and type-A nightmare Emily Charlton.HokumOut nowAdam Scott (Severance) stars in this Irish-set haunted-house horror about a man whose journey to spread his parents’ ashes involves some unexpectedly spooky twists and turns. Irish former electrician Damian McCarthy writes and directs his first Hollywood feature after a couple of lower-budget homegrown hits.Wild FoxesOut nowValéry Carnoy directs this French coming-of-age drama which premiered at Cannes last year to prize-winning effect
Peter Kay show stopped and 19-year-old in custody after ‘suspicious bag’ found
A live show by comedian Peter Kay in Birmingham has been stopped after a “potential suspicious bag” was found around the venue.The Utilita Arena Birmingham was evacuated and a 19-year-old man was taken into custody, West Midlands police said on Friday evening.The force said: “We are assisting with an evacuation at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham after a potential suspicious bag was found.“A 19-year-old man is in custody and as a precaution the site is currently subject of a search. We will provide further updates when we can
Jimmy Kimmel: ‘Trump has three wars going on right now – Iranians, Ukrainians and comedians’
Late-night hosts reacted to yet another call by Donald Trump for Jimmy Kimmel to be fired, more US floundering in Iran and the supreme court effectively dismantling the Voting Rights Act.Jimmy Kimmel woke up on Thursday morning to, somehow, yet another call from the president for his show to be cancelled. As Donald Trump posted on Truth Social: “When is ABC Fake News Network firing seriously unfunny Jimmy Kimmel, who incompetently presides over one of the Lowest Rated shows on Television? People are angry. It better be soon!!! President DJT”“Or what?” Kimmel laughed on Thursday evening. “If incompetently presiding over not just one of but the lowest rating in history is the reason I should be fired, we should both be out of a job
The Guide #241: Wintour isn’t coming … and her Devil Wears Prada absence is for the best
The Devil Wears Prada 2 has a cameo list more stuffed than the fashion cupboard at the film’s fictional Runway magazine. It runs the gamut from eye-poppingly famous (Lady Gaga, Donatella Versace, Naomi Campbell) to if-you-know-you-know industry famous (Tina Brown, say, or a host of supermodels familiar to anyone on the Paris front row) to “huh, how did they get there?” (Late Show bandleader Jon Batiste, or Chicken Shop Date’s Amelia Dimoldenberg, already on her second cameo of the year after a super-quick turn in an episode of Industry). Missing, though, is the one cameo everyone hoped for, the white – or should that be cerulean? – whale herself: Anna Wintour, Vogue top dog and heavy inspiration in the film for Meryl Streep’s formidable sadist-in-chief, Miranda Priestly.Wintour, though absent from the original Devil Wears Prada, always hovered over proceedings – it’s said that a number of designers steered clear of cameo appearances in the first film for fear of offending her – and Wintour herself, though present at its premiere, always studiously avoided discussing the film. But in recent months there seems to have been a sudden thawing – fond words from Wintour about the film on the New Yorker podcast, then a shock appearance alongside Streep on a Vogue cover – prompting speculation that the be-fringed one might deign to appear in the sequel
Post your questions for Harry Potter and Fast Show star Mark Williams
Twenty-five years have now passed since the first Harry Potter film and, with the HBO reboot due out this Christmas, Warner Bros is ramping up the celebrations. Key among them is the unveiling of a new feature at the studio tour showcasing key moments, costumes and props from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.And this is why Mark Williams is now taking your questions – although, as Potter purists will know, his character doesn’t actually appear in the first film. Arthur Weasley does, however, play a pretty big role in the other seven movies, so let’s muggle through regardless.In the movies, Williams plays the ministry of magic employee, husband to Julie Walters’ Molly Weasley and father of Ron, Ginny, Fred, George, Percy, Charlie and Bill – a role for which he had to dye his hair red
Man who pocketed tiles from medieval priory as boy returns them 60 years later
Fragments of a priory’s medieval tiled floor that spent almost 60 years stashed in a toffee tin after being pocketed by a nine-year-old boy during a family outing have finally been handed back.The three pieces of decorative clay tiles, dating from the late 13th to early 14th century, were taken as a souvenir by Simon White during a family visit to Wenlock Priory in Shropshire in the late 1960s.White, now a 68-year-old retired chartered surveyor, found the fragments in an old toffee tin during a house move and owned up to English Heritage. He told officials he recalled his father encouraging him to take the pieces but had always felt a little uneasy and was delighted when he rediscovered them.“I can remember the day this all happened with my father standing guard,” he said
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