ExxonMobil, Chevron's big cash shows cheap gas isn’t coming back

LTC Eugene Chu for those who didn't read your post. It's price gouging... plain and simple.

"The industry's reallocation of money to shareholders from new drilling comes as political leaders, including President Joe Biden, criticize oil companies for not restraining the price of gasoline as crude oil rose from $53 when Biden took office in 2021 to $77.50 now. Exxon's fourth-quarter profit margin of almost 14% of revenue compares to 11% a year ago.

"My message to the American energy companies is this: You should not be using your profits to buy back stock or for dividends," Biden said in October. "Not now. Not while a war is raging. You should be using these record-breaking profits to increase production and refining."

The White House attacked both companies again this week after the buyback announcements.

In the market, and at the oil companies headquarters, it seems the opinions issued from the White House aren't much of a factor in setting financial priorities. The price of oil is set on world markets, rather than by individual producers, Thummel said. The role of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, led by Saudi Arabia, in limiting production is the biggest factor in world prices. U.S. oil production, which does not have a central organization setting prices, has rebounded from a post-Covid low reached in April 2021, and reached 383 million barrels per month in October, closing in on the all-time high of 402 million in December 2019, according to U.S. government data.

Gas prices are also being hit by a loss of refining capacity. Part of this is longer-term, as refiners phased out less profitable facilities during the Covid-related demand drop, and following a wave of mergers forced by declining cash flow and share prices. And part of it stems from temporary shutdowns for maintenance made necessary by the cold wave in much of the country in December, CFRA Research analyst Stewart Glickman said.

Of the two biggest U.S. oil producers, Chevron made the more dramatic changes in the fourth quarter earnings releases, since Exxon had announced its buyback acceleration earlier, Glickman said.

The benchmark now is to spend roughly a third of operating cash flow on capital investment, a third on dividends and a third on stock buybacks. The buybacks can be dialed back if oil prices fall, and would likely be the first big cost cut oil producers would make if crude fell back to $60 a barrel from the current range about $77, he said. Buybacks, unlike dividends, aren't treated as a "must" by investors each quarter, while cutting a dividend can lead to mass selling by investors.

Chevron is pretty close to Glickman's recipe, with $49.6 billion of 2022 cash flow yielding $11 billion in dividend payments, $11.3 billion in share buybacks that were accelerating as the year ended to the $15 billion annual pace, and $12 billion in capital investment – enough to boost U.S. production by about 4% even as its international production dropped. Exxon made $76.8 billion in operating cash flow, invested $18 billion back into the business, spent $14.9 billion on dividends and $15.2 billion in stock purchases, according to its cash flow statement.

"What we learned from [earnings announcements] is that the industry is very committed to a conservative approach to spending," Glickman said. "They could [drill more], but they would have to sacrifice their return thresholds, and neither they nor their shareholders are interested. I don't blame them."...

Shows good business sense in an anti-fossil fuel atmosphere.

That is the cost of gas in a Democrat run State where policies and taxes have doubled the price of fuel over States that don't have similar taxing and policy schemes.