This business week will end on Friday. Big deal, you say. Friday has capped off all commercial weeks since time immemorial. This one, however, will be just a little more informative for investors with interests in energy.
Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM)‘s up first
Let’s begin with ExxonMobil, in a sort of size-before-beauty ordering. The big company is expected by the analysts who follow it to report per-share earnings in the vicinity of $2.00, up very slightly from last year’s comparable $1.97. The consensus prediction for its quarterly revenues is $115.22 billion, down from the $121.61 billion top line figure for the final quarter of 2011. And, where the worlds of quality and quantity meet for the company, it’s at least marginally meaningful that, of the 22 analysts with opinions on Exxon, fully 13, or nearly 60%, rate the company a “Hold.”
As always, a key figure that will emanate from the reporting session will be the company’s liquids production for the quarter. In the September period, Exxon’s liquids output averaged 2.12 million barrels per day, down by 133,000 daily barrels from 2011’s last quarter.
As is typically the case with the wide-ranging company, its information on recent activities and events will constitute something of a lesson in geography. For instance, during the final month of the quarter, ExxonMobil and its new Russian partner Rosneft advanced their relationship by executing a Declaration on Protection of the Environment and Biodiversity. The document relates to the Russian Arctic, where the two companies are preparing to begin joint exploratory efforts.
Further, the company announced during the quarter that it will begin exploration activities offshore South Africa. And, as the current quarter began, ExxonMobil said it would begin developing the Hebron oil field offshore Canada’s Newfoundland and Labrador.
Followed by Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) Chevron, the second largest of the U.S.-based integrated oil and gas companies, is expected to report per-share results near $3.04, or about 18% above the $2.58 it earned for each share in the fourth quarter of 2011. The consensus expectation for quarterly revenues is $68.64 billion, up 14% from the $59.98 billion top-line figure generated in the same quarter in the prior year. Of the 23 analysts who have published ratings on Chevron, 17, or 74%, accord the company at least a “Buy.”
Chevron is also on the move geographically. As the current quarter began, the company said that a subsidiary had entered into production sharing contracts with China’s CNOOC Limited (ADR) (NYSE:CEO) covering two exploration blocks in the South China Sea’s Pearl River Mouth Basin.
In addition, just last week, the California company disclosed that, through a subsidiary, it had sighted agreements with Morocco’s office of mines involving three areas off the country’s coast. I would note that heading west from Morocco — which is separate from Europe only by the Strait of Gibraltar — one encounters Algeria, Libya, and Egypt, in that order. None of these countries represents a bastion of stability at this juncture.
