FILE - This Jan. 27, 2011 file photo shows an Exxon sign in Carnegie, Pa. Exxon Mobil Corp. said Friday, Feb. 1, 2013, that fourth-quarter earnings rose 6 percent to $9.95 billion with help from higher refining profit margins. The company still makes most of its money by producing oil and gas, but that end of the business was less profitable than a year ago because of lower prices and production. Exxon made up the difference in the refining business. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
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FILE - This Jan. 27, 2011 file photo shows an Exxon sign in Carnegie, Pa. Exxon Mobil Corp. said Friday, Feb. 1, 2013, that fourth-quarter earnings rose 6 percent to $9.95 billion with help from higher refining profit margins. The company still makes most of its money by producing oil and gas, but that end of the business was less profitable than a year ago because of lower prices and production. Exxon made up the difference in the refining business. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
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Clouds roil over the White House in Washington on the morning of Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012, as Washington has less than 48 hours to avert the “fiscal cliff,” a series of tax increases and spending cuts set to take hold on Jan. 1. Republican and Democratic negotiators in the Senate were hoping to reach a deal to avoid going over the cliff on Sunday. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
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President Barack Obama gestures during a statement on the fiscal cliff negotiations with congressional leaders in the briefing room of the White House on Friday, Dec. 28, 2012 in Washington. The negotiations are a last ditch effort to avoid across-the-board first of the year tax increases and deep spending cuts. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
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President Barack Obama pauses during a statement on the fiscal cliff negotiations with congressional leaders in the briefing room of the White House on Friday, Dec. 28, 2012 in Washington. The negotiations are a last ditch effort to avoid across-the-board first of the year tax increases and deep spending cuts. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
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President Barack Obama arrives to make a statement on the fiscal cliff negotiations with congressional leaders in the briefing room of the White House on Friday, Dec. 28, 2012, in Washington. The negotiations are a last ditch effort to avoid across-the-board first of the year tax increases and deep spending cuts. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., retreats to a closed-door meeting with fellow Democrats as he and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., work to negotiate a legislative path to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff," at the Capitol in Washington, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. Senate and House leaders rushed to assemble a last-ditch agreement to stave off middle-class tax increases and possibly delay steep spending cuts in an urgent attempt to find common ground after weeks of gridlock. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, center, arrives at his office in the Capitol as he and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Neveda, try to negotiate a legislative solution to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff" in Washington, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, arrives at his office in the Capitol as he and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Neveda try to negotiate a legislative solution to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff," in Washington, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona walks between the Senate chamber and the office of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, as Democrats and Republicans try to negotiate a legislative path to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff," in Washington, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Chevron profit up on asset exchange, refineries
NEW YORK (
AP) — Chevron Corp. posted a 41 percent gain in net income for the fourth quarter as the company produced more oil and gas, improved the performance of its refinery business and realized a gain from swapping assets in an Australian natural gas field.
Chevron Corp. posted net income of $7.2 billion for the quarter on revenue of $60.6 billion. That's up from $5.1 billion on revenue of $60 billion a year ago.
It was the biggest fourth quarter profit in the company's history. The company's annual profit of $26.2 billion was second only to last year's numbers.
On a per-share basis, Chevron earned $3.70. Analysts had expected the company to earn $3.06 per share, according to FactSet, but analysts had not factored in the $1.4 billion gain from Chevron's asset exchange.
Stacey Hudson, an analyst at Raymond James, estimates the exchange was worth 72 cents per share, which would put Chevron's adjusted earnings 8 cents below what analysts had expected but 40 cents higher than the fourth quarter of last year. Chevron's results were also helped by the sale of the company's fuels marketing operations in the Caribbean.
Excluding the gain from the Australian asset sale Chevron's net income rose 14 percent in the quarter.
Hudson described the results as "solid." Chevron shares rose $1.35 to close at $116.50 Friday.
Chevron's production rose to 2.67 million barrels of oil and gas per day for the quarter, up just slightly from a year ago but up substantially from the 2.5 million the company produced in the third quarter of last year. For the year, Chevron produced an average of 2.64 million barrels per day, down from 2.67 million barrels per day in 2011.
Production has been hurt by the temporary closure of the company's Brazilian offshore project in what is known as the Frade field. It has been closed since oil was found to be seeping from the field in November 2011 and again in March 2012.
The company's production of oil and other liquid hydrocarbons in the U.S. rose 3 percent to 462,000 barrels per day in the quarter. That lagged the blistering growth of overall U.S. production which has been rising dramatically in recent years. U.S. crude production rose 14 percent in the fourth quarter of last year to 6.85 million barrels per day, up from 5.98 million barrels per day in the same period of the previous year, according to the Energy Department.
Chevron sold oil and liquids for an average of $91 per barrel in the fourth quarter in the U.S., down from $101 per barrel during last year's fourth quarter. Abroad, Chevron brought in $100 per barrel, down from $101 last year.
Chevron's chemicals and refining operations improved, especially in the U.S., because input costs at the plants including crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids fell while the prices for the refined fuels and chemicals rose. Chevron's refinery output in the U.S. fell by 75,000 barrels per day, however, after an August fire at its Richmond, Calif. plant shut down a processing unit.
Larger rival Exxon Mobil Corp. reported a 6 percent increase in fourth-quarter earnings to $9.95 billion.
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