Chevron slashes costs to protect dividend from coronavirus
Chevron is deepening capital spending cuts
Chevron Corp. is taking further action to protect its prized divided.
The San Ramon, California-based integrated energy company will reduce capital expenditures by an additional $2 billion to $14 billion and lower operating costs by $1 billion. Chevron in March cut capital spending by $4 billion and suspended share buybacks.
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“First-quarter earnings were up from a year ago, driven by downstream margins and increased" output from the Permian basin, CEO Michael Wirth said in a statement. “However, commodity prices fell significantly in March and the weakness continued into the second quarter, primarily due to reduced demand resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Chevron reported a first-quarter profit of $3.6 billion, or $1.93 a share, as revenue fell 11 percent to $31.5 billion. Wall Street analysts surveyed by Refintiv were expecting 68 cents a share on revenue of $29.4 billion.
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The results included a $240 million gain associated with the sale of upstream assets in the Philippines and a $440 million tax benefit from Chevron's international upstream business.
Chevron's worldwide net oil-equivalent production hit a quarterly record 3.24 million barrels per day, up 6 percent from a year ago.
Shares have slumped 24 percent this year through Thursday, trailing the S&P 500's 9.85 percent drop.
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CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated Chevron's capital spending plans. Spending will be reduced as much as $2 billion, and total outlay may be as low as $14 billion.