ExxonMobil’s Earnings Beat Estimates, but Profits Slide on Lower Oil Prices

The company said market conditions and uncertainty over tariff policies are weighing on its growth prospects.

An Exxon sign at a mini-mart in Dormont, Pa., on April 29, 2014. Gene J. Puskar / AP File

Exactly one year after completing its $60 billion acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources, ExxonMobil Corp. posted stronger-than-ever first-quarter results but saw its earnings deteriorate as falling oil and gas prices cut into profit margins.

As of 2:15 p.m. ET on May 2, shares of the largest U.S. integrated oil company were up 0.29 percent at $106.11. Earlier in the week, prices for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude, the U.S. premium grade, fell below $57 per barrel, the lowest level since February 2021.

In the company’s conference call with analysts, CEO Darren Woods said ongoing market conditions and tariff policies dramatically impact oil prices and ExxonMobil’s global operations, profits, and future earnings.

“Especially in light of the ongoing uncertainty in tariffs. It is clear this uncertainty is weighing down (our) economic forecast, causing significant volatility and raising the prospect of slower growth,” Woods said. “Coupled with the threats of increased OPEC supply, we are seeing significant downward pressure on [oil and gas] prices and margins.”

Woods reiterated ExxonMobil’s commitment to its six-year strategic plan, first introduced in late 2024. That plan primarily focuses on global upstream operations and U.S. production from Pioneer’s former shale assets in West Texas through the decade’s end, he said.

“When we get to 2030, I am confident we will have delivered on our plan,” added Woods, who overhauled his upstream leadership team in February.

For the quarter ended March 31, the Spring, Texas-based oil giant reported first-quarter earnings of $7.7 billion, or $1.76 per share, down 6.1 percent from $8.2 billion, or $2.06 per share, in the same period in 2024. Total revenue of $83.1 billion was slightly above the $83.08 billion a year ago.

According to FactSet, Wall Street had expected the Texas oil and gas conglomerate to report first-quarter earnings of $1.73 per share on revenue of $86.35 billion. Through March, ExxonMobil’s upstream business, which includes oil and gas exploration and production, posted earnings of $6.76 billion in the quarter, up 19 percent from $5.66 billion a year ago.

Profits from the oil giant’s U.S. drilling and development grew more than 70 percent, to $1.87 billion, from $1.05 billion in the same quarter in 2024. The company’s chemical products business earnings were $273 million, compared with $785 million in the same quarter last year.

Exxon’s global production came in at 4.55 million barrels per day, an increase of 20 percent, compared with 3.78 million barrels per day in the year-ago period. In a company SEC filing on April 3, the Texas supermajor forecasted that higher crude oil and natural gas prices could boost the company’s upstream first-quarter earnings by $800 million.

In December 2024, ExxonMobil announced its new global strategic plan to increase earnings and cash flow by $20 billion and $30 billion through 2030. That plan includes increasing upstream production to 5.4 million oil-equivalent barrels per day, pursuing up to $30 billion in lower emissions opportunities, and improving synergies from the Pioneer acquisition by over 50 percent to more than $3 billion.

The 2030 plan also includes capital spending of $27 billion to $29 billion this year and $28 billion to $33 billion annually on attractive long-term opportunities from 2026 to 2030. Over those six years, ExxonMobil said it will invest about $140 billion in major projects worldwide and the Permian Basin development program in the United States, generating shareholder returns of more than 30 percent.

Major projects in the integrated oil conglomerate’s portfolio include the deepwater Hammerhead and Longtail in Guyana. The company’s lucrative deepwater play off the northern coast of South America has eight major oil and gas developments. By 2030, ExxonMobil expects the total production capacity of the Guyana project to reach 1.7 million barrels per day.

Although the company is resetting its climate-related goals, it is still pursuing up to $30 billion of low-carbon opportunities between 2025 and 2030. The integrated energy conglomerate said it plans to start operations in 2029 on a large-scale low-carbon hydrogen facility in Baytown, Texas, where a high-capacity carbon dioxide pipeline network to provide permanent subsurface storage capacity across the U.S. Gulf Coast is underway.

ExxonMobil has also widely shared its intention to be a leading producer of lithium, a key component of electric vehicle (EV) batteries. The Texas oil giant unveiled in early 2023 that it had begun the first phase of drilling for lithium in southwest Arkansas’s Smackover Formation, an area known for holding significant lithium deposits, a December 2024 U.S. Geological Survey report shows.

ExxonMobil expects its first lithium production by 2027 and aims to produce enough lithium to meet the manufacturing needs of more than a million EVs annually.

During the earnings call on May 2, Woods also highlighted the company’s petrochemical startup project in China, where ExxonMobil has operated for over a century. Not specifically detailing the company’s total investment, Woods said the project in the Guangdong province will supply China’s growing domestic market, calling it the largest in the world.

“This Greenfield project will not only be competitive, but will also be protected from tariff impacts,” he said.

With the company’s ongoing transformation to lower supply costs, ExxonMobil hopes to drive down crude oil “breakeven prices” to $35 per barrel by 2027 and $30 per barrel by 2030, Woods said.