US majors struggle in second quarter

摘要

Lower oil prices meant that Chevron and ExxonMobil posted their weakest quarterly profits since 2002 and 2009, respectively, in April-June. Chevron’s upstream division swung to a rare loss because of $2bn of post-tax impairments — mainly related to the Papa Terra field offshore Brazil — and around $670mn of other one-off, noncash charges linked to project suspensions and adverse fiscal effects. “The trigger was a lowering of our longer-term price outlook on crude,” chief financial officer Pat Yarrington says.