Chevron reported a net profit of $5.77 billion for the second quarter of the year, beating analyst expectations, although the figure was lower than both the first-quarter net profit of the company and the year-ago number.
At the same time, Chevron also reported a record-high production rate in the Permian, at 772,000 barrels of oil equivalent daily during the second quarter.
It also boasted it had distributed some $7.2 billion to shareholders-a record high-in the form of dividends, to the tune of $2.8 billion, and share buybacks.
"The macro price environment has softened a little bit versus the first quarter," chief executive Michael Wirth told Reuters in an interview. "We had high levels of operating performance (and) very, very little unplanned downtime across our portfolio."
Chevron will be reporting its detailed second-quarter results at the end of this week.
Meanwhile, despite its record production rate in the Permian, the company is looking to reduce its assets there. Last month, Reuters reported Chevron had put up some assets in the basin up for sale even as it also bought assets in the same area.
In May, Chevron signed a deal to buy shale firm PDC Energy for $6.3 billion-picking up assets next to its existing assets in the Denver-Julesburg and Permian Basins. It also had the highest bids for Gulf of Mexico drilling rights for seven of the ten blocks in oil lease sale number 259 back in March.
At the same time, however, Chevron listed more than two thousand net acres for sale via auction in New Mexico, and nearly 30,000 acres in New Mexico and Texas, with bids due July 27. The value of the acreage up for grabs via these auctions is estimated at $100 million, according to Reuters, which cited an unnamed source.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
Charles is a writer for Oilprice.com More