LNG

ExxonMobil Corp., the largest US oil company and leading LNG producer and a partner of Qatar in many global projects, will have its first-quarter 2024 earnings impacted by price shifts while also completing the sale of its stake in the Adriatic LNG import terminal offshore Italy and pursuing the huge takeover of Pioneer Natural Resources in the US.

ExxonMobil estimated that large decreases in oil, gas and fuel prices would deliver a first-quarter operating profit of between $6.65 billion and $11.6Bln for the first three months of the year compared with $7.63Bln in the fourth quarter of 2023.

ExxonMobil filed its first-quarter earnings indicator with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The ExxonMobil earnings total would be well below the prior-year first quarter when natural gas prices were much higher.

Weaker prices

Overall weaker oil and gas prices alone were expected to reduce ExxonMobil’s profits by about $600 million compared with the fourth quarter of 2023.

The company also said fuel derivatives adversely affected gains in gasoline and diesel margins, costing it about $1.1Bln compared with the fourth quarter.

Refining maintenance costs also increased during the fourth-quarter and the first quarter of the 2024.

“To give perspective regarding market and planned factors affecting 1Q 2024 results, we are providing the summary of items management believes will impact 1Q 2024 results relative to 4Q 2023 results,” said the company.

“These factors are generally limited to significant planned activities, market dynamics and seasonal demand patterns,” the filing explained.

“This is only intended to provide information regarding current estimates of these factors,” said the filing.

“It is not comprehensive of all changes between 4Q 2023 and 1Q 2024 results and is not an estimate of 1Q 2024 earnings for the Corporation,” ExxonMobil stated.

Adriatic LNG sale

Dutch energy storage group VTTI has also acquired the 70 percent stake previously held by ExxonMobil in Italy's biggest LNG terminal, the gravity-based structure facility Adriatic LNG, and the balance of 30 percent is now owned by Italian gas grid and terminals operator SNAM.

ExxonMobil had stated in March 2023 that it was considering selling its stake of just over 70 percent in Adriatic LNG as a non-core asset.

The Adriatic terminal is located 15 kilometres (9.3 miles) off the Veneto coastline of Italy and has been on line since 2009.

It includes two LNG storage tanks, each with a capacity of 125,000 cubic metres.

The operating company is called Terminale GNL Adriatico. ExxonMobil had held its majority stake while a QatarEnergy unit, Qatar Terminal Company, owned 22 percent and SNAM had held 7.3 percent.

ExxonMobil is also pursuing the all-stock deal to acquire Texas-based Pioneer Natural Resources for $59.5Bln.

The combination gives ExxonMobil a stronger position in the Permian Basin in Western Texas and New Mexico.

ExxonMobil is expected to report first-quarter earnings on April 26.

ExxonMobil Corp. has filed for arbitration to retain pre-emption rights in a world-class oil field offshore Guyana in the northeast tip of South America, threatening Chevron Corp.’s agreed $53 billion acquisition of New York-based oil and gas company Hess Corp.

Hess Corp., the New York-based oil and gas company being acquired by Chevron Corp. in a transaction agreed in October and valued at $53 billion, is trying to re-assure Chevron that one of its main assets in Guyana was safe from any pre-emption purchase offer from the other shareholders in the block.

Dec 6 (LNGJ) - ExxonMobil said the US major’s compensation committee had approved an increase in the annual salary of its senior executives. Darren. W. Woods, Chairman and Chief Executive, will receive $1,875,000 per year. Kathryn. A. Mikells, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, sees her raise take her salary to $1,221,000 per year. Neil A. Chapman, Senior Vice President, will get $1,199,000 per year and Jack. P. Williams, Senior Vice President, is to earn $1,210,000 per year.

   The Irving, Texas-based oil and gas company and major LNG player said the all new salary levels would be effective from January 2023, according to the statement filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. ExxonMobil commented on the basic salary levels of its top team by saying: “All ExxonMobil executive officers are ‘at will’ employees of the Corporation and do not have employment contracts.”

Excelerate Energy, the US specialist and a market leader in floating storage and regasfication units (FSRUs), is preparing an initial public offering that will help test the appetite of investors for shares in the natural gas sector of the energy transition.

Excelerate has filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to debut its shares and will be circulating a prospectus.

Excelerate intends to list its Class A common stock on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol “EE.”

Excelerate is based in The Woodlands in Houston in Texas and is part of a privately held US energy group founded by George Kaiser, owner of the Bank of Oklahoma.

The company has an operating fleet of 10 LNG FSRUs and is the pioneer of over a dozen import projects worldwide.

Execerate has also led the way in ship-to-ship LNG transfers as it started terminal operations in South America, the US, Europe and Asia.

“The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering are subject to market conditions and have not yet been determined,” said Excelerate in a statement.

Three banks have been nominated to serve as joint lead book-running managers for the proposed offering, Barclays of the UK and US investment banks J.P. Morgan, and Morgan Stanley.

“The displacement of dirtier fossil fuels and the natural complement of LNG to a fast-growing renewables sector makes flexible floating LNG products, such as those provided by Excelerate, a part of the solution to decarbonization,” the company says.

In its latest terminal project Excelerate will help to stabilize the flow of supplies to Brazil through 2022 with a deal to deploy one of its existing FSRUs to the port of Salvador in the northeast state of Bahia.

Under the agreement with the South American country’s state-owned oil and gas company Petróleo Brasileiro Excelerate’s FSRU “Excelerate Sequoia” will supply up to 700 million cubic feet per day of regasified LNG.

Sea-LNG, a global coalition led by energy and shipping companies backing the increased use of liquefied natural gas as a maritime fuel, has issued a report demonstrating the long-term competitive advantages of LNG for shipping in terms of financing.