ExxonMobil Earns $3.72 A Share As Refining Margin Hits $50.3 A Barrel
Refining profit rose to $7.2 billion while production earnings slipped, and the board declared a $1.07 fourth-quarter dividend.
ExxonMobil Holdings earned $15.4 billion, or $3.72 a share, in the third quarter, against $7.5 billion a year earlier, as a surge in refining profit more than covered a dip in oil-and-gas production earnings, the company said Friday. Adjusted earnings were $17.5 billion, or $4.23 a share.
Refining overtakes production
Energy Products, the refining arm, earned $7.2 billion, up from $5.5 billion in the second quarter. Upstream, which pumps oil and gas, earned $7.1 billion, down from $7.9 billion, which the company attributed to lower prices and an accelerated Guyana entitlement impact.
The price backdrop explains the split. Brent crude averaged $97.01 a barrel, below $104.52 in the second quarter, while the indicative refining margin rose to $50.3 a barrel from $29.0.
Operating cash flow was $25.7 billion and free cash flow $19.1 billion. Chemical Products earned $735 million, down from $1.13 billion, as margins declined, while Specialty Products rose to $1.29 billion from $956 million.
Cash returned and debt cut
Shareholder distributions totaled $9.4 billion: $4.3 billion of dividends and $5.1 billion of buybacks. Net debt stood at $22.1 billion at September 30, which is $34.3 billion of total debt less $12.2 billion of cash, and year-to-date net debt reduction was nearly $11 billion.
The board declared a fourth-quarter dividend of $1.07 a share, payable December 10 to holders of record on November 16. ExxonMobil also announced $20 billion of share repurchases for 2027, assuming reasonable market conditions.
Costs and the "lasting" claim
Chairman and CEO Darren Woods pointed to $16.9 billion of structural cost savings since 2019, which included $1.8 billion in the first nine months of 2026. "These are lasting improvements, not simply the result of favorable prices and margins," he said.
For the first nine months, earnings were $34.1 billion, or $8.18 a share, against $22.3 billion, or $5.16, a year earlier. Upstream production in the quarter was 4,496 thousand oil-equivalent barrels a day, versus 4,514 thousand in the second quarter.
The $1.07 dividend is payable December 10, extending what the company calls 44 consecutive years of annual dividend-per-share increases.
Sources
- 8-K Filing — ExxonMobil Holdings Corp (XOM) — SEC EDGAR
- Exhibit livef8k3q26992.htm — ExxonMobil Holdings Corp 8-K exhibit — SEC EDGAR
