Energy
Big Oil’s Optimism Faces Reality Check in Tech-Obsessed Market
- Exxon, Chevron return $58 billion but trade at low multiples
- US is world’s top oil producer but energy is 3.7% of S&P 500
BP Plc Cherry Point Refinery near Blaine, Washington.
Photographer: James MacDonald/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. are generating returns not seen since their heyday over a decade ago, with $58.7 billion handed to shareholders last year and more to come in 2024, even if crude prices drop. And yet, they’re struggling to compete in a stock market beholden to Silicon Valley.
Chevron hit record production in 2023 while buying back 5% of its stock and forecasts oil and gas growth of as much as 7% this year, led by low-cost barrels from the Permian Basin. It was rewarded with a 3% bump in its shares Friday, slightly better than Shell Plc’s gain a day earlier. Exxon, which is gushing cash from the fast-growing oil discovery in Guyana, fell 0.4%.