Increased Production and Refining Advantage Boost Performance! Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM.US) Q4 earnings surpass expectations, potential investment in Venezuela becomes market focus.

Thanks to an increase in oil production and improvement in refining profit margins, American oil giant Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM.US) exceeded expectations for the fourth quarter of 2025. The financial report shows that Exxon Mobil Corporation had total revenue of $82.308 billion in Q4, a 1% decrease year-on-year. Adjusted net profit was $7.256 billion; adjusted earnings per share were $1.71, better than the analysts' consensus of $1.68. Oil producers have been facing pressure on profitability in 2025 due to oversupply in the oil market, leading to a 19% drop in Brent crude oil prices last year. However, Exxon Mobil Corporation's adjusted profit for the full year of 2025 only decreased by 10%, as the company focused on cost-cutting. Exxon Mobil Corporation CEO Darren Woods said, "We are extracting more value from every barrel of oil and every molecule produced, and building growth platforms on a large scale to create a long-term path for profit growth until 2030 and beyond." Adjusted upstream business profit for Q4 was $4.4 billion, lower than the $5.7 billion in the previous quarter. Exxon Mobil Corporation stated that the daily average upstream production for the full year of 2025 reached 4.7 million barrels of oil equivalent, the highest in over 40 years. Q4 production was close to an average of 5 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. Meanwhile, strong refining profit margins, cost savings, and record refining throughput drove significant improvements in Exxon Mobil Corporation's Q4 and full-year 2025 refining profits. Adjusted energy products business profit in Q4 increased by 60% to $2.9 billion; the full-year profit for this business was $6.9 billion, a 73% increase from around $4 billion in the previous year. Additionally, Exxon Mobil Corporation reported an adjusted loss of $11 million in its chemicals business, compared to a profit of $515 million in Q3, due to weakening profit margins, asset write-downs, and increased seasonal expenses. Royal Bank of Canada Capital Markets analyst Biralj Bokhatariya said, "It is noteworthy that this is the first loss in the chemicals division since Q4 2019, highlighting the severity of the current chemical industry downturn." Exxon Mobil Corporation paid out $17.2 billion in dividends in 2025 and repurchased $20 billion worth of stock. The company plans to repurchase the same amount of stock in 2026. Exxon Mobil Corporation's total capital spending in 2025 amounted to $29 billion. The company stated that capital spending this year would be between $27 billion and $29 billion. In terms of production capacity, Exxon Mobil Corporation is steadily working towards increasing its annual production to an average of 4.9 million barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2026, including approximately 1.8 million barrels of oil equivalent per day from the largest oil field in the U.S., the Permian Basin. In a financial earnings conference call later on Friday, Woods may face questions about how the company is evaluating the possibility of re-entering Venezuela. The U.S. authorities forcibly captured Venezuelan President Maduro earlier this month, and President Trump has urged U.S. companies to invest billions of dollars to revitalize the oil industry in Venezuela. However, Woods, in a meeting with Trump and other oil company executives at the White House, called Venezuela "not a viable investment" and stated that the company needs investment protection, as its assets have been seized twice. Exxon Mobil Corporation stated that the Golden Pass liquefied natural gas export facility in Texas is expected to start operations early this year, and the company is progressing on a massive natural gas export project in Mozambique. These commitments may indicate that Exxon Mobil Corporation does not have an urgent need to invest in Venezuela. Woods stated that he is open to sending a team to analyze opportunities in Venezuela, but any investment must be secure. and meet economic standards.