Tuesday, May 15, 2012

US Big Oil 1Q 2012 Earnings.....A Clear Bifurcation

I found 40 US Big Oil and Gas Corps with Pretax Income or Pretax Loss of more than $200 mil in either the 1Q 2012 or in the 1Q 2011.

I am including a handful of Foreign-owned Corps here, including the huge Royal Dutch Shell and BP, since they have substantial operations in the US.


These 40 US Big Oil and Gas Corps had Total Pretax Income of $81.2 bil in the 1Q 2012, a modest 1% increase over the 1Q 2011.  Now that is what I call earnings growth deceleration, since the earnings growth of US Big Oil and Gas Corps from annual 2009 to annual 2011 was 109%.


When I analyze the profit amounts of individual Oil and Gas Corps, there is clearly one salient finding.  The Big 5's total earnings declined in the 1Q 2012 and the Remaining 35's total earnings increased robustly.

The Big 5's Total Pretax Income was $59.3 bil in the 1Q 2012, a 7% decline from the $63.7 bil earned in the 1Q 2011.  Only one of the Big 5 had a Pretax Earnings increase in the 1Q 2012.....Chevron......, which generated $947 mil of higher Pretax Income in the 1Q 2012.  However, I find it strange that its Income Statement Expense Report Line Item "Taxes Other Than On Income" was a massive $1,709 mil lower in the 1Q 2012 as compared with the 1Q 2011, which results in a like amount of Pretax Income increase, but with no explanation disclosed of the reason for this massive 37% Expense decline. 

On the other hand, the Remaining 35 Big Oil and Gas Corps generated Total Pretax Income of $21.9 bil in the 1Q 2012, a 33% increase from the $16.5 bil earned in the 1Q 2011.  And only 6 of these 35 companies had Pretax Income declines in the 1Q 2012 as compared with the 1Q 2011. 

This Bifurcation of Earnings Changes between the Big 5 Oil and Gas Corps and the Other Gas and Oil Corps started in the 4Q 2011 and continued in the most recent 1Q 2012.

I think that part of the explanation of this Earnings Change Bifurcation is that people around the globe are fed up with the largest Oil and Gas Corps generating excessive profits, year after year, all earned on their backs through higher gas prices at the pump.

Further, US citizens are also fed up with the massive annual Tax Subsidies these Big 5 largest Oil and Gas Corps receive.  And when the Obama Administration and the Democrats in the US Senate recently attempted to have these Tax Subsidies eliminated, the US Congress, which is controlled by the largest US Big Oil and Gas Corps, voted it down.  This infuriates US citizens further, and some of them see no option but to take out their frustration at the gas pump, by boycotting, as best they can, the largest US Big Oil Corps.

I do think it is good for the US economy and for US job creation for the Total Earnings Growth of the smaller US Oil and Gas Corps to be markedly higher than that of the largest US Big Oil and Gas Corps.

I also think it would be good for the US economy and US job creation for Exxon Mobil to break itself up into three parts and Chevron into two parts.

In determining Pretax Income, I am excluding some items which are large relative to the Pretax Income amount.  Thus, Asset Impairments such as that from the Ceiling Test Related to Oil and Gas Properties are excluded.  And so are Gains and Losses Related to Both Debt Retirements and Asset Dispositions.

Below here is the Pretax Income (PTI) or Pretax Loss (PTL) in the 1Q of both 2012 and the 1Q 2011 of each of these 40 US Big Oil and Gas Corps.





Increase Increase

PTI PTI (Decrease) (Decrease)

1Q 2012 1Q 2011 Amount %

mils $s mils $s mils $s
Oil and Gas



Big 5



Exxon Mobil 17,515 18,917 (1,402) -7%
Royal Dutch Shell 15,356 16,423 (1,067) -6%
Chevron 12,069 11,122 947 9%
BP 8,923 11,398 (2,475) -22%
ConocoPhillips 5,475 5,796 (321) -6%
Total all Big 5 59,338 63,656 (4,318) -7%



Remaining 35

Occidental Petroleum 2,597 2,362 235 10%
Apache 2,081 1,927 154 8%
Schlumberger 1,721 1,238 483 39%
Marathon Oil 1,440 1,270 170 13%
Halliburton 1,242 741 501 68%
Anakarko Petroleum 1,006 503 503 100%
Marathon Petroleum 934 822 112 14%
Hess 898 1,142 (244) -21%
National Oilwell Varco 873 593 280 47%
Enterprise Products Partners 621 442 179 40%
Devon Energy 611 580 31 5%
Baker Hughes 573 588 (15) -3%
EOG Resources 520 226 294 130%
Spectra Energy 496 514 (18) -4%
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners 495 297 198 67%
Williams Companies 492 338 154 46%
Murphy Oil 489 411 78 19%
Kinder Morgan Inc 401 246 155 63%
HollyFrontier 387 140 247 176%
Noble Energy 374 37 337 911%
Pioneer Natural Resources 328 (124) 452 365%
Transocean Ltd 325 245 80 33%
Ensco Intl 302 83 219 264%
OneOK 293 283 10 4%
El Paso Corp 281 196 85 43%
Valero Energy 274 144 130 90%
Weatherford Intl 267 85 182 214%
Plains All American Pipeline LP 257 198 59 30%
Diamond Offshore 251 297 (46) -15%
QEP Resources 245 117 128 109%
Nabors Industries 212 140 72 51%
Helmerich & Payne 205 159 46 29%
Energy Transfer Partners 199 258 (59) -23%
Southwestern Energy 178 226 (48) -21%
Chesapeake Energy (5) (266) 261 98%





Total all Remaining 35 21,863 16,458 5,405 33%



Total all 40 81,201 80,114 1,087 1%