ExxonMobil clinched another record breaking performance as it announced this morning that its 2024 second-quarter profits climbed to US$9.2 billion. This is a significant jump when compared to the US$7.9 billion made during the same period last year.
ExxonMobil officials said the massive boost in profits was on account of the outstanding performance in its Guyana and USA assets.
Vice President, Treasurer and Investor Relations Head for Exxon, Jim Chapman told the market that the company’s “advantaged assets” contributed an additional US$1.7 billion in profits. Chapman highlighted that this was driven by the start up of Guyana’s third floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, Prosperity; the acquisition of US oil major, Pioneer Natural Resources; and growth in its heritage Permian assets.
“But even without the addition of Pioneer, record growth from our advantaged Permian and Guyana assets more than offset the natural decline in our base volumes,” said Chapman.
In Guyana, he reminded shareholders, Exxon is lead operator for the Stabroek Block which holds 11 billion oil equivalent barrels. He said, “We delivered record first-half gross production of more than 620,000 barrels per day. That’s an improvement of more than 240,000 barrels per day year on year.”
In the 2024 second quarter, he said the company submitted an application to the Guyana’s Environmental Protection Agency for Hammerhead – the 7th FPSO-based project for the country.
“While we continue to evaluate and define the scope of Hammerhead, the current expectation of production capacity is between 120,000 to 180,000 barrels per day…,” said Chapman, adding that Hammerhead is expected to start up in 2029.
Exxon’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Darren Woods also sang Guyana’s praises as he underscored to shareholders that the company delivered its second-highest, second quarter earnings of the past decade.
“We achieved record quarterly production from our low-cost-of-supply Permian and Guyana assets, with the highest oil production since the Exxon and Mobil merger,” said Woods.
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Kathy Mikells said the company’s performance is an astute demonstration of its focus on improving its earnings power. Mikells stressed that Exxon is making tangible progress across all three of its capital allocation priorities: growing investments in high-return advantaged projects, ensuring it has a strong balance sheet to manage through the commodity cycle, and increasing distributions to shareholders.
Looking ahead, Mikells said Exxon is not only confident that its actions will enable its base business to create value long into the future, but it is also hard at work, continuing to grow its newer technology-driven businesses, all of which ensure that ExxonMobil will thrive no matter the speed of the energy transition.