Boston, MA 05/14/2014 (wallstreetpr) – The world’s leading publicly marketed oil company, Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM), posted its quarterly profit on May 1, 2014. The profits gathered by the company in the first quarter of 2014 were much lower than the analysts’ expectations. The unpredictably low profits were because of the bitter winter spell throughout the U.S. This hostile weather, in turn, affected the natural gas prices.
Bad weather affected the U.S.
The extreme winter season affected majority of the U.S. in the months of January and February. It has pushed Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM)’s average natural gas sale price in the U.S. up by 49%. It has at least helped the company in compensating the plunge in global production.
The natural gas prices climbed up both domestically as well as internationally. It occurred even when the price that Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) gets for its crude oil, slid both in the U.S. and globally.
Net income of the company
Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) also posted its net income for the first quarter of this year on May 1, 2014. It reported a net income of $9.10 billion, or $2.10 on every share. The net income was lower in 1Q2014 as compared to the same quarter a year back, where the net income of the company was $9.50 billion, or $2.12 per share. On the other hand, the total production of Exxon Mobile weakened in the first quarter of 2014. The company announced its total production to have declined by about 6%, thereby reaching 4.2 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd).
Cut in production in Texas refinery
The publicly traded oil business reported poor margins in both its refining as well as chemical units. Part of the fall was because of a cut in the production at its 560,500 boepd Baytown, Texas refinery. The cut in the production occurred just after the closure of the Houston Ship Channel caused by an oil barge spill in March, 2014.
