Sabrina Valle

HOUSTON (Reuters] -Chevron Corp has reported a loss for the fourth quarter. The reason was weaker than anticipated oil and gas production, outweighing gains from recovery prices.

In pre-market trade, its shares fell.

First major oil company reporting quarterly earnings, Refinitiv posted adjusted earnings in the range of $2.65 per share or $5.1 billion. Refinitiv revealed that analysts had predicted a profit of $3.12 per shares, with more hope from rising prices.

Chevron (NYSE:) In the third quarter of 2018, oil and gas production fell 5% to 3.12 Million barrels per daily (bpd), equivalent oil. The loss of an Indonesian production licence was responsible for the 181,000 bpd decrease in global output.

Biraj Borkhataria (deputy head, European research) at RBC Capital Markets stated that “the miss was driven primarily by International upstream.” “Downstream earnings were also disappointing, with weakening across both chemicals and refining.”

Chevron shares soared to new heights this week thanks to investors’ expectations that high oil prices will drive earnings. They climbed to $135.37 Thursday (a record for the company, which was also a 4-year-high). In pre-market trade, shares were down 3.5% to $130.64

Jefferies analyst wrote that there was “a weak performance across most areas”, and also noted that 2022’s production guidance would see a 3.3% decline.

In its refining and oil-and-gas businesses, operating results fell below analysts’ expectations, and upstream earnings dropped to $4.15billion from $5.14billion in the third.

Refining earned $760 million in fourth quarter, lower than $1.31 billion but higher than a loss $338 million last year.

It said that its quarterly share buybacks will take place at the upper end of the $3 billion-$5 billion range it calculated last year. Chevron increased its dividend to $1.42 per Share this week by 6%

Michael Wirth, chief executive of the company said that 2022 would be even more favorable for shareholders’ cash. “We’re more capital and cost efficient, enabling us to return more cash to shareholders.”

Chevron slashed spending in 2020 on new projects as the pandemic hit. The move helped profit soar after oil and gas prices rose. Last quarter’s benchmark oil price averaged $79/barrel, compared to $43 last year.

Chevron, its oil-and gas producer business, reported an operating loss of $5.2 billion. This is up from $501,000,000 a year earlier, but lower than analyst estimates for about $6.6 million.

Chevron stated that international oil and natural gas was sold for $74 per barrel, which is an increase from $40 in the quarter prior. Global net oil-and gas production in 2021 reached 3.1 million barrels per hour, an increase of 1% from last year.