ConocoPhillips $COP lowered its full-year production outlook due to uncertainty from the Middle East conflict, even as the company's first-quarter adjusted earnings cleared analyst expectations.
Full-year output guidance was trimmed to a range of 2.295 million to 2.325 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, pulling back from the prior target of 2.33 million to 2.36 million. The revised guidance reflects a 20,000-barrel-per-day annual adjustment for the exclusion of Qatar. Qatar's volumes were also stripped out of the second-quarter outlook, where the company projects output of 2.19 million to 2.22 million barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Earnings for the first quarter totaled $2.18 billion, or $1.78 a share, compared with $2.85 billion, or $2.23 a share, in the year-ago quarter. On an adjusted basis, which backs out charges tied to pending claims and settlements along with a contingent liability loss, the company earned $1.89 a share — well above the $1.68 consensus estimate analysts had anticipated, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Weakness in Permian gas prices and softer volumes drove the year-over-year profit drop, though cost reductions provided a partial cushion, ConocoPhillips said. Realized prices averaged $50.36 per barrel of oil equivalent for the period, roughly 5.6% below where they stood twelve months prior. Output came to approximately 2.31 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, shedding about 80,000 barrels per day compared with the same quarter in 2025.
Cash provided by operating activities reached $4.3 billion for the quarter, while cash from operations was $5.4 billion, the company said. ConocoPhillips distributed $2.0 billion to shareholders, split evenly between share repurchases and its ordinary dividend. The company declared a second-quarter ordinary dividend of $0.84 a share.
"Our thoughts are with our team, partners and everyone impacted by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East," CEO Ryan Lance said in a statement.
The Middle East war has reverberated across the global energy industry. BP $BP, which more than doubled its first-quarter profit on an surge in oil trading tied to the conflict, also warned that the war has put its full-year production on a lower trajectory and said ongoing regional disruptions would weigh on upstream volumes in the second quarter.
Shares were trading down roughly 1.7% before the market open.