Exxon Mobil topped most expectations in the fourth quarter as the energy giant reported solid production in the Permian Basin and Guyana.
For the three months ended Dec. 31, Exxon earned $6.5 billion, or $1.53 per share. It earned $7.61 billion, or $1.72 per share, a year earlier.
Excluding one time charges and benefits earnings were $1.71 per share, topping the $1.68 per share that Wall Street was calling for, according to a poll by Zacks Investment Research. Exxon does not adjust its reported results based on one-time events such as asset sales.
Revenue totaled $82.31 billion, which was below the $83.18 billion that analysts expected.
Fourth-quarter net production was 5 million oil-equivalent barrels per day. That's up slightly from 4.7 million oil-equivalent barrels per day in the third quarter. The quarterly performance included 1.8 million oil-equivalent barrels per day in the Permian and Guyana approaching 875,000 gross barrels per day.
Exxon's stock dropped more than 2% before the market opened Friday.
Earlier this month President Donald Trump said that he is “inclined” to keep Exxon Mobil out of Venezuela after its top executive was skeptical about oil investment efforts in the country after the toppling of former President Nicolás Maduro.
Getting U.S. oil companies to invest in Venezuela and help rebuild the country’s infrastructure is a top priority of the Trump administration after Maduro’s capture.
FILE - This is the sign on a Exxon gas station in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
BEIJING (AP) — U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrived in the Chinese financial center of Shanghai on Friday in his bid to boost business opportunities for British firms in the world's second-largest economy, just hours after U.S. President Donald Trump signaled a possible opposition to any deal between Beijing and London.
Starmer, the center-left Labour leader, has brought more than 50 business leaders on his trip to China, the first by a U.K. prime minister in eight years.
He started his trip in Beijing, where he met with Chinese leaders including Xi Jinping. The two pledged to pursue a long-term and stable strategic partnership, in what was seen as a sign of improving ties after several years of friction between the two countries.
In Washington, Trump suggested that he may oppose any deal, and then pivoted to Canada, with which he has had a series of sharp exchanges since Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney visited China earlier this month.
“Well, it’s very dangerous for them to do that,” he said, when asked about Starmer’s visit and any U.K. trade talks with Beijing. “And it’s even more dangerous, I think, for Canada to get into business with China. Canada is not doing well. They’re doing very poorly.”
“You can’t look at China as the answer,” he said.
Starmer and Carney are among a series of foreign leaders visiting Beijing as their nations seek to improve ties with China. Many have seen their countries’ economies buffeted by Trump’s tariffs and are looking to expand other export markets.
Starmer said that Xi agreed to remove a travel ban that had been imposed on several British lawmakers after the U.K.'s former center-right Conservative government joined the European Union, Canada and the U.S. in imposing sanctions on four Chinese officials over evidence of rights abuses against the Uyghur Muslim people in the far western Xinjiang region.
“This has been a cause of concern in Parliament and for parliamentarians for some time and that is why I raised it on this visit," Starmer told ITV News. “The response from the Chinese is that the restrictions no longer apply and President Xi has told me that that means that all parliamentarians are welcome to visit.”
It wasn't clear if the U.K. offered anything in return for lifting the sanctions on British lawmakers, but the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that the two sides agreed to normal exchanges between their legislatures.
Lawmakers who had been sanctioned, including former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith, issued a statement rejecting any deal to lift the sanctions in exchange for diplomatic and economic concessions.
“We wish to make our position unequivocally clear: we would rather remain under sanction indefinitely than have our status used as a bargaining chip to justify lifting British sanctions on those officials responsible for the genocide in Xinjiang," the group of seven said in a joint statement.
Darlene Superville in Washington, and Brian Melley in London, contributed to this report.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, center, arrives for a UK-China Business Forum at the Bank of China in Beijing Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (Carl Court/Pool Photo via AP)
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer attends the UK-China Business Forum held at the headquarters of the Bank of China (BOC) in Beijing, China, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, Pool)
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers remarks at a UK-China Business Forum at the Bank of China in Beijing Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (Carl Court/Pool Photo via AP)
From left, Zheng Zeguang, Chinese ambassador to to Britain, Ren Hongbin, Chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Ge Haijiao, Chairman and Executive Director of the Bank of China Limited (BOC) pose for photos in Beijing, China, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, Pool)
