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ExxonMobil second-quarter profit rises on Pioneer acquisition and surging production

The Texas oil and gas giant earned $9.24 billion, or $2.14 per share, for the second quarter of 2024. Photo via exxonmobil.com

ExxonMobil recorded one of its largest second-quarter profits in a decade on surging quarterly production from oil and gas fields in Guyana and the Permian basin in the U.S., as well its $60 billion acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources.

The Texas oil and gas giant earned $9.24 billion, or $2.14 per share, for the three months ended June 30, topping last year's profit of $7.88 billion, or $1.94 per share.

The results topped Wall Street expectations, though Exxon does not adjust its reported results based on one-time events such as asset sales. Analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research were expecting earnings of $2.04 per share.

“We achieved record quarterly production from our low-cost-of-supply Permian and Guyana assets, with the highest oil production since the Exxon and Mobil merger," Chairman and CEO Darren Woods said in a prepared statement Friday.

The Pioneer deal contributed $500 million to earnings in the first two months after closing, Exxon said.

Revenue for the Spring, Texas, company totaled $93.06 billion, topping Wall Street's expectations for $90.38 billion.

Exxon's net production reached 4.4 million oil-equivalent barrels per day during the second quarter, an increase of 15% compared with the first three months of the year.

Oil prices are lower than they were at this point last year, and those high prices sent Exxon and other energy giants on a buying spree.

Exxon announced in July 2023 that it would pay $4.9 billion for Denbury Resources, an oil and gas producer that has entered the business of capturing and storing carbon and stands to benefit from changes in U.S. climate policy.

Three months later it said it would spend $60 billion on shale operator Pioneer Natural Resources. That deal received clearance from the Federal Trade Commission in May.

In October Chevron said it would buy Hess Corp. for $53 billion, joining the acquisitions race.

Chevron Corp. also reported its second-quarter financial results on Friday, which fell far short of profit expectations.

In addition, the company said that it is moving its headquarters from San Ramon, California, to Houston, Texas. Chevron expects all corporate functions to transition to Houston over the next five years, with positions in support of its California operations remaining in San Ramon. Chairman and CEO Mike Wirth and Vice Chairman Mark Nelson will move to Houston before the end of the year.

Chevron currently has about 7,000 employees in the Houston area and approximately 2,000 employees in San Ramon. The company runs crude oil fields, technical facilities, and two refineries and supplies more than 1,800 retail stations in California.

Its shares slipped 1.7% before the opening bell.

Shares of ExxonMobil Corp. fell slightly in premarket trading. Chevron shares fell 1.7%.

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A View From HETI

Michael Wortley, Joulent's new CFO, and Corey Grindal, the company's new COO. Photos courtesy Joulent

Houston-based energy infrastructure startup Joulent has brought aboard a new chief financial officer and new chief operating officer—both former executives at Houston-based Cheniere Energy.

The C-suite moves come three months after Joulent raised $1.75 billion from National Grid Ventures.

Michael Wortley joins Joulent as co-president and CFO. Wortley most recently was executive vice president and CFO at Cheniere, an LNG producer and exporter.

In conjunction with Wortley’s hiring, Brian Boland, who was Joulent’s interim CFO, has been named executive vice president, chief investment officer, and head of strategy.

Corey Grindal comes to Joulent as co-president and COO. Grindal most recently was executive vice president and COO at Cheniere.

“As Joulent evolves to meet the growing demand for power infrastructure, our expanded leadership team will help ensure we continue delivering the execution certainty our customers, partners, and investors expect,” Chris James, Joulent’s founder and CEO, said in a press release.

“Corey and Michael are accomplished operators with exceptional records of building and leading world-class energy infrastructure businesses, where they have embedded a culture defined by operational excellence and disciplined execution,” James added.

Joulet builds dedicated power-generating facilities that feed directly into data centers and other power-dependent facilities. This eliminates the need for companies to draw power from grids.

“With an initial multi-gigawatt development portfolio and strategic partnerships across the energy, infrastructure, and data center ecosystem, Joulent is helping remove power constraints to enable the next chapter of American innovation and U.S. reindustrialization,” the company says.

The $1.75 billion minority investment from National Grid Ventures complements Joulent’s existing partnerships.

Joulent, founded in 2023, emerged from stealth mode this summer. Cambridge, Massachusetts-based GE Vernova, a provider of energy equipment and services, and investment firm Engine No. 1 formed Joulent.

Joulent’s first project, the Project Kilby natural gas facility in West Texas, will be co-located with a Microsoft data center. It’ll deliver about 2.67 gigawatts of power under a 20-year deal between Microsoft and Energy Forge One, a subsidiary of Houston-based Chevron. Engine No. 1 and Chevron teamed up to build the plant.

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