Chevron Corporation reported earnings of $2.6 billion, $1.37 per diluted share, for first quarter 2015, compared with $4.5 billion, EPS $2.36, in the 2014 first quarter.
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Foreign currency effects increased earnings in the 2015 quarter by $580 million, compared with a decrease of $79 million a year earlier.
Sales and other operating revenues in first quarter 2015 were $32 billion, compared to $51 billion in the year-ago period.
Worldwide net oil-equivalent production was 2.68 million barrels per day in first quarter 2015, up from 2.59 million barrels per day in the 2014 first quarter. This production increase of over 3 percent came from project ramp-ups in the United States, Bangladesh and Argentina, along with production entitlement effects in several locations. Normal field declines and the effect of asset sales partially offset these effects.
U.S. upstream operations incurred a loss of $460 million in first quarter 2015 compared to earnings of $912 million from a year earlier, largely due to sharply lower crude oil realizations. Higher depreciation expenses, in part due to impairments, and lower natural gas realizations, were largely offset by higher crude oil production and lower operating expenses.
The company’s average sales price per barrel of crude oil and natural gas liquids was $43 in first quarter 2015, down from $91 a year ago. The average sales price of natural gas was $2.27 per thousand cubic feet, compared with $4.77 in last year’s first quarter.
Net oil-equivalent production of 699,000 barrels per day in first quarter 2015 was up 59,000 barrels per day, or 9 percent, from a year earlier. Production increased due to project ramp-ups in the Gulf of Mexico, the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico, and the Marcellus Shale in western Pennsylvania.
The net liquids component of oil-equivalent production increased 12 percent in the 2015 first quarter to 489,000 barrels per day, while net natural gas production increased 4 percent in the 2015 first quarter to 1.26 billion cubic feet per day. ■