Chevron Corp posted a drop in quarterly profit on Friday and its new boss said the second-largest US oil company had plenty of work to do on its own project line-up without making any big acquisitions.
Chief executive John Watson also said there would be no refinery closures in the near term, despite a bad performance in the fourth quarter that weighed heavily on its bottom line.
Exxon Mobil Corp’s planned purchase of US natural gas producer XTO Energy cast the industry’s attention on how Exxon’s smaller rivals might respond.
Chevron’s anticipated production growth this year will not come anywhere close to the 9 percent fourth-quarter increase, but Watson, who just took over the top job at the start of this month, said the company’s long-term pipeline was very full.
“We can see growth out through the rest of this decade, and so we haven’t been particularly needy, if you will, to do a large transaction,” he told analysts on a conference call. “We haven’t felt that the opportunities that are out there compete with other things that we have in our portfolio.”
For one, the company will be spending heavily off the coast of Western Australia this year, with US$3.5 billion of its US$21.6 billion capital spending budget going toward construction of its massive natural gas operations there.
Fourth-quarter profit fell to US$3.07 billion, or US$1.53 per share, from US$4.9 billion, or US$2.44 per share, a year before, with Chevron being hit by negative currency moves and a lack of derivative gains and a US$600 million asset swap a year before.
Watson, on his first call with analysts since becoming CEO, said it was “quite premature” to talk of closing refineries, but he would seek cost cuts and aim for a 10 percent-plus downstream return through the cycle.
Chevron will merge its chemicals arm with the rest of the downstream business and retain a spending bias that will shift its focus over time to exploration and production, he said.
Zhang Yazhou was sitting in the passenger seat of her Tesla Model 3 when she said she heard her father’s panicked voice: The brakes do not work. Approaching a red light, her father swerved around two cars before plowing into a sport utility vehicle and a sedan, and crashing into a large concrete barrier. Stunned, Zhang gazed at the deflating airbag in front of her. She could never have imagined what was to come: Tesla Inc sued her for defamation for complaining publicly about the vehicles brakes — and won. A Chinese court ordered Zhang to pay more than US$23,000 in
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday held its first board of directors meeting in the US, at which it did not unveil any new US investments despite mounting tariff threats from US President Donald Trump. Trump has threatened to impose 100 percent tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, prompting market speculation that TSMC might consider boosting its chip capacity in the US or ramping up production of advanced chips such as those using a 2-nanometer technology process at its Arizona fabs ahead of schedule. Speculation also swirled that the chipmaker might consider building its own advanced packaging capacity in the US as part
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that its investment plan in Arizona is going according to schedule, following a local media report claiming that the company is planning to break ground on its third wafer fab in the US in June. In a statement, TSMC said it does not comment on market speculation, but that its investments in Arizona are proceeding well. TSMC is investing more than US$65 billion in Arizona to build three advanced wafer fabs. The first one has started production using the 4-nanometer (nm) process, while the second one would start mass production using the
US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose up to 100 percent tariffs on Taiwan’s semiconductor exports to the US to encourage chip manufacturers to move their production facilities to the US, but experts are questioning his strategy, warning it could harm industries on both sides. “I’m very confused and surprised that the Trump administration would try and do this,” Bob O’Donnell, chief analyst and founder of TECHnalysis Research in California, said in an interview with the Central News Agency on Wednesday. “It seems to reflect the fact that they don’t understand how the semiconductor industry really works,” O’Donnell said. Economic sanctions would