ExxonMobil Adjusted Profit Jumps to $17.505 Billion on Refining Boom
Key Facts
ExxonMobil reported third-quarter 2026 earnings under generally accepted accounting principles of $15.413 billion, or $3.72 per share, while adjusted earnings reached $17.505 billion, or $4.23 per share. Adjusted earnings per share exceeded the analyst consensus of $4.08, and adjusted earnings also topped an estimate of $16.6 billion. Compared with the second quarter, GAAP earnings increased by $888 million, and adjusted earnings rose by $2.825 billion. The results show a widening gap between production and refining, with the improvement driven by strength in downstream operations. Cash flow also enabled the company to continue shareholder distributions and share repurchases.
Cash flow from operating activities was $25.7 billion in the quarter, while free cash flow was $19.1 billion. The company returned $9.4 billion to shareholders, including $4.3 billion in dividends and $5.1 billion in share repurchases. It announced a $20 billion share repurchase program for 2027, matching the amount announced for 2026. It also declared a quarterly dividend of $1.07 per share for the fourth quarter, payable on December 10 to shareholders of record on November 16. The company said it had increased its annual dividend for 44 consecutive years.
Reuters attributed the strong earnings to a boom in refining margins linked to the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries, which disrupted fuel production capacity and tightened global diesel supplies. Adjusted downstream earnings rose to $9 billion, up 120% from the second quarter, on improved margins. By contrast, adjusted upstream earnings were $7.3 billion, down 20% from the previous quarter as Brent prices fell. The company's refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast operated at 100% crude distillation unit utilization, and diesel production there reached its second-highest level. The Beaumont refinery expansion helped increase distillate production by about 40% since 2019, according to the Associated Press.
ExxonMobil produced about 4.5 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in the quarter, a nearly unchanged level from the second quarter. In detail, upstream production was 4.496 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, compared with 4.514 million in the second quarter and 4.468 million in the same period of 2025. The company said year-to-date improvement in upstream earnings benefited from higher prices and volume growth in Guyana, the Permian Basin and the Golden Pass liquefied natural gas project, offset by Middle East volume disruptions and higher non-cash expenses. It also attributed year-to-date strength in energy products earnings to higher margins, record fuel operating efficiency and optimization activities, with external impacts on operations and scheduled maintenance providing offsets. Cumulative production reached 1 billion barrels in both Guyana and Kearl, while cumulative production at the PNG LNG project reached 100 million tonnes.
Chief Executive Darren Woods said the company's investments, including the Beaumont refinery expansion, helped increase distillate production on the U.S. Gulf Coast by about 40% since 2019. He added that cumulative structural savings had reached $16.9 billion since that year. For results since the start of 2026, ExxonMobil reported GAAP earnings of $34.121 billion, compared with $22.343 billion in the first nine months of 2025. Adjusted earnings for the period were $40.957 billion, compared with $22.457 billion a year earlier. On September 30, net debt was $22.1 billion, after a reduction of about $11 billion since the start of the year; this comprised total debt of $34.3 billion less $12.2 billion in cash.
On expansion, the company announced that it would operate the Papua LNG project and agreed to raise its stakes in LNG projects to 34% in Papua and 50% in the Rovuma project in Mozambique. In the market, ExxonMobil shares rose 2.2% on Friday, October 30, after the company and Chevron reported quarterly earnings stronger than analysts expected, in a session when Wall Street stocks fell to their worst daily performance since June amid a sell-off in technology shares. EL7 data showed the stock closed at $187.25 that day. The results put the company's LNG expansion alongside its announced $20 billion share repurchase program for 2027. The next quarterly dividend is payable on December 10, 2026, to shareholders of record on November 16, 2026.