The world's top 12 publicly-traded oil-producing companies saw their total net income fall in the third quarter of 2019, compared to the same period a year ago, according to data compiled by Anadolu Agency on the companies' financial results on Monday.
The U.S.' ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Halliburton, Schlumberger, Baker Hughes, British BP, Royal Dutch Shell, French Total S.A., Italy's Eni, Russia's Rosneft and Norway's Equinor saw their collective net income fall by 56.2% year-over-year. These 12 companies had their total net income decline to $14.24 billion in the July-September period of 2019, from $32.51 billion during the same period of 2018, according to the data.
The oil giants also saw their collective revenue fall to $319.74 billion in the third quarter of this year, from $366.62 billion in the same period of last year, marking a 12.8% year-over-year decline.
- Shell posts highest income, revenue
Among the 12 energy giants, Royal Dutch Shell was the company that registered the highest net income and revenue in the July-September period of 2019. The Anglo-Dutch firm had a net income of $5.88 billion in the third quarter of the year and posted a revenue of $86.59 billion during that period.
In the July-September period of this year, the world's biggest oilfield service provider Schlumberger recorded the highest net loss among the 12 majors with $11.38 billion, while the second-largest oilfield service provider Halliburton reported the lowest revenue at $5.55 billion.
However, Baker Hughes, the world's third-biggest oilfield service provider, posted the highest percentage year-over-year increase in net income among the 12 firms, which soared 338% to $57 million in the third quarter of 2019 from $13 million for the same period of last year.
Baker Hughes also saw its revenue increase by 3.9% to hold the largest percentage increase in revenue among the 12 firms year over year. Its revenue rose to $5.88 billion in the July-September period of this year from $5.66 billion for the same period of last year.
On the other hand, Italy's Eni saw the highest percentage decrease in net income among these companies with a 65.7% decline as its earnings fell to $580 million in the third quarter of this year from $1.69 billion over the same period last year. Norway's Equinor posted the highest percentage decrease in revenue with 18.4%, falling to $15.61 billion from $19.14 billion over the same period.
- Oil prices fell by 17.5%
The major reason behind the decline in collective net income and revenue for the oil giants was due to a fall in crude oil prices, which saw a year-over-year decline of 17.5%. International benchmark Brent crude averaged $75 per barrel in the third quarter of 2018, but fell to an average of $61.90 a barrel in the third quarter of 2019, according to official data.
Two other factors behind the price decline were the glut of supply in the global oil market with rising U.S. shale oil production and the trade impasse between the U.S. and China. The world's two largest economies and oil consumers to date have failed to reach a definitive trade agreement, and as their trade war rolls into the 20th month, this has so far created a negative outlook for global economic growth and overall oil demand worldwide.
On the supply side, rising shale oil output continues to propel U.S. crude oil production to record high levels, to the extent that the U.S. surpassed Saudi Arabia and Russia in November 2018 to become the world's largest crude oil producer.
The U.S.' crude oil production rose from 11.25 million barrels per day (bpd) in the third quarter of 2018 to 12.18 million bpd for the same period of 2019, marking an 8.3% increase, according to the Energy Information Administration's (EIA) data.
Crude oil production in the country is forecast to average 13.3 million bpd in 2020, according to the EIA's Short-Term Energy Outlook for November, which could push prices down further and hurt the net income and revenues of oil companies.
(Anadolu Agency)
