The world's oil majors have felt the pinch in the second Quarter of 2012, with all showing underlying falls in profits.
Hardest hit was BP, which announced a massive $1.4bn loss for the second time this year - a significant turnaround from the $5.7bn profit for the same period last year. The company's CEO, Bob Dudley, blamed "a combination of factors" on the poor results.
Amongst the issues affecting BP were the continued fallout from the Gulf of Mexico spill, which sapped a further $847m from reserves; value reductions on shale gas and refinery assets; and lower than expected income from the fated Russian TNK-BP venture, which saw a further $700m reduction income against Q1 numbers.
The company continues to drive its divestment programe, with $24bn worth of assets already slated for sale against a $38bn target by the end of next year. The latest disposal is a newly-announced $2.5bn cash deal with Tesoro Corporation for the BP Carson refinery, logistics operations and ARCO-branded network in California.
Elsewhere, Shell's current cost of supplies earnings fell by $2bn year-on-year to $6bn, with net profits 53% lower at a fraction more than $4bn. Revenues were down at $117bn from $121bn for the same period in 2011. Downstream activities, however, saw some improvement with a 20% post to $1.3bn. The company pointed at price volatility for the poor figures this Quarter.
ExxonMobil also showed reduced Q2 profits, with a 22% drop to $8.4bn against the previous year and production off by 5.6%. This was despite a slight increase in revenue to $127.4bn and 49% improvement in Q2 earnings (at $15.9bn boosted by assets sales including the $3.9bn deal for its share in the Japanese Tonen General Sekiyu organisation.
ConocoPhillips fared little better, with a 33% drop in Q2 earnings at $2.3bn, figures which include a month's worth of downstream earnings from its spun-off Phillips 66 organisation. Half year earning were also down at $5.2bn from $6.4bn the previous year. Chevron managed to maintain a relatively steady state, with Q2 earnings just $0.5bn down on the same time last year at $7.2bn, with revenues and upstream earnings both slightly lower. Downstream activities gave some relief, contributing $802m against $564m in 2011.
Only French oil producer Total showed any optimism. Depending on the reporting currency, the organisation showed a 2% improvement on adjusted net income at €2.9bn, although this converted into a 9% US Dollar loss at $3.7bn, with non-adjusted net income at €1,6bn. Upstream revenues were affected by "incidents" in the North Sea, Nigeria and Yemen but still showed a 2% improvement.