The WSJ reports "Exxon Mobil Corp.said its first-quarter earnings fell 4.2% as growth in its exploration and production business was offset by declines in its refining and chemicals segments.
Exxon Mobil reported a profit of $9.1 billion, or $2.10 a share, down from $9.5 billion, or $2.12 a share, a year earlier. Revenue decreased 1.5% to $106.77 billion.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected a per-share profit of $1.88 and revenue of $109.76 billion.
Earnings from its exploration-and-production business rose 11% to $7.8 billion, reflecting higher natural-gas price realizations. Production dropped 5.6% on an oil-equivalent basis from a year earlier.
Capital and exploration expenditures for the first quarter were $8.4 billion, down 28%.
Exxon's refining and marketing business reported that earnings declined 47% to $813 million on weaker margins, mostly in its refining business.
Chemical segment earnings fell 7.9% to $1.05 billion.
Share repurchases to reduce shares outstanding were $3 billion in the latest quarter.
The world's largest publicly traded oil company is also the largest natural gas producer in the U.S. since its $25 billion acquisition of XTO Energy Inc. in 2010. Exxon has added to its shale-gas assets through additional deals since then".
