U.S. oil giants ExxonMobil and Chevron delivered their first-quarter earnings reports last week, posting a combined $18 billion in profits.
Both companies posted fairly convincing earnings reports, beating analyst estimates on the top and bottom lines.
After reporting record earnings in 2022, both companies added to their cash pile, with Exxon adding net income of $11.4 billion, a first-quarter record for the company, and Chevron adding $6.6 billion, more than double their quarterly averages in the past 10 years, according to analysis from The Wall Street Journal.
Exxon ended the quarter with $33 billion in cash, the largest amount of cash on hand since 2008, prompting speculation about whether it will increase dividends or issue more buybacks.
The company has initiated preliminary talks to acquire Irving-based oil producer Pioneer Natural Resources, which is currently worth slightly north of $50 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Pioneer has a sizable presence in Texas’ Permian Basin, a region that Exxon CEO Darren Woods said the company is highly focused on.
“We’re always looking for an opportunity for an acquisition and one that grows value. And it’s got to be value accretive. It’s got to be one where — what ExxonMobil brings to the table actually increases what either company would do independent of one another,” Woods said on the earnings call.
“And to the extent that we are very active in the Permian, we’ve got a really good anchor business there, and we’re working real hard on opening up the value proposition of our current acreage with technology that will open up, potentially, opportunities for acquisitions.”
Meanwhile, Chevron CEO Mike Wirth said he plans to use the company’s financial strength to deliver “superior cash distributions to our shareholders.”
Regarding the company’s cash pile, Chevron CFO Pierre Breber hinted at returning its excess cash to shareholders, saying, “We don’t intend to hold $15 billion-plus of cash on our balance sheet. We can run the company at $5 billion and this is surplus cash.”
“It’s economically inefficient for us (to) hold it, and it’s not our cash; it’s our shareholders’ cash,” he said.
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