Chevron Income Drops 15%; Oil Prices Cited

Chevron, the nation’s fourth-largest oil company, said its third-quarter profit was down by 15% from the same period a year ago because of low crude oil prices.

San Francisco-based Chevron said it earned $208 million on revenue of $6 billion, down from $245 million on $10.3 billion in sales a year ago.

“As long as both crude oil prices and sales margins remained depressed, we will experience continued downward pressure on our earnings,” said George M. Keller, Chevron’s chairman.

The company said its quarterly earnings were positively affected by a $17-million gain from sales of assets, including its paraquat marketing rights, Chevron Asphalt Ltd., GA Technologies and certain other properties, and from $13 million in writeoffs, mainly from the impaired value of a fertilizer plant.

Chevron said changes in pension accounting standards reduced its quarterly expenses by $24 million. Third-quarter earnings also included foreign exchange gains of $57 million, compared to losses of $29 million in the 1985 period, it said.