U.S. oil giant Exxon Mobil said Thursday its first-quarter earnings declined 58 percent from a year ago due to global slowdown and sharply lower crude and gas prices.
Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, said in a statement that its first-quarter earnings were 4.55 billion U.S. dollars, down from 10.89 billion dollars in the year-ago quarter. Revenue was down 45 percent to 64billion dollars, from 116.9 billion dollars a year ago.
Exxon was not alone reporting poor first-quarter profits among leading U.S. oil companies. Conoco Phillips, the third largest U.S. oil company, announced earlier its first-quarter profit plummeted 80 percent to 840 million dollars. The No. 2 U.S. oil company Chevron Corp. will report its first-quarter results Friday.
Also on Thursday, Houston-based Marathon Oil Corp., the fourth largest U.S. integrated oil company, said its first-quarter earnings fell 61 percent to 282 million dollars, versus net income of 731 million dollars in the same period a year ago.
Analysts are forecasting a "pretty tough" second quarter for oil companies as a result of low commodity prices, lack of demand in the industrial sector and less driving by people amid the economic recession.