Chevron announced record earnings for 2022 but its fourth-quarter profits slipped from previous months in a sign that Big Oil’s cash surge is cooling after fossil fuel prices retreated from near all-time highs in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The US oil supermajor’s fourth-quarter profit of $6.4bn was down sharply from $11.2bn in the third quarter, well shy of Wall Street expectations of $8.2bn, according to estimates compiled by S&P Capital IQ.
Chevron said lower global oil and gas prices were responsible for most of the decline in earnings, while it also took a $1.1bn writedown in its international production business. The fourth-quarter profit was up about 25 per cent from the same time a year earlier.