The Energy Products segment swung to a loss of $1.26 billion from a $827 million profit in the same quarter of 2025. Once timing effects and the identified item are stripped away, however, the segment generated $2.8 billion in profit — more than three times the $856 million it earned a year earlier, the company said.
ExxonMobil $XOM's Middle East footprint is among the largest of any major oil company, representing roughly 20% of total oil and gas output, according to Reuters. War-related disruptions shaved 6% off first-quarter production relative to the preceding three-month period. A full second quarter with the Strait of Hormuz closed, the company warned, would reduce its Middle East volumes by 750,000 barrels per day versus year-ago levels.
Despite the disruptions, net oil-equivalent production reached 4.6 million barrels per day in the quarter, with Guyana setting a new quarterly record of more than 900,000 gross barrels per day, the company said. Production in the Permian Basin also increased.
"Events in the Middle East tested that strength," CEO Darren Woods said in a statement, adding that the underlying business delivered results reflecting the benefits of a strategy executed since 2018.
Free cash flow dropped sharply from $8.8 billion in the first quarter of 2025 to $2.7 billion this quarter. During the period, shareholders received $4.3 billion in dividends and $4.9 billion in share buybacks. ExxonMobil also announced a second-quarter dividend of $1.03 per share, to be paid on June 10.
Chevron $CVX also reported its lowest profit in five years in the first quarter, with net income of $2.2 billion, down from $3.5 billion a year earlier. Like ExxonMobil, Chevron beat adjusted earnings estimates and attributed a large portion of the gap between reported and adjusted results to timing effects from financial derivatives. Chevron's exposure to the Middle East is more limited, with the region accounting for less than 5% of its production, according to Reuters.
ExxonMobil stock was up more than 1% in premarket trading Friday.
