Big Oil Companies Have Mixed Results in Quarter

Oil giant Exxon Corp. reported Monday that its net income declined 29.3% in the first quarter due to an accounting change, while fifth-ranked Amoco Corp. said its profit edged up 1.7%.

Ashland Oil Inc., meanwhile, posted net income of $1 million for the second quarter of its fiscal year, contrasted with a $14-million loss a year earlier. Amerada Hess Corp. said its first-quarter profit plummeted 82%.

For the three months ended March 31, Exxon’s profit fell to $1.28 billion from $1.81 billion in the first quarter of 1989.

Net income in the year-earlier quarter included a $535-million accounting gain resulting from Exxon’s adoption of a new accounting standard for income taxes. Excluding the one-time gain, New York-based Exxon earned $1.275 billion in the first quarter of 1989.

First-quarter revenue for Exxon, the nation’s largest oil company, jumped 20.3% to $26.7 billion from $22.2 billion.

“Crude (oil) production, natural gas sales, petroleum product sales and chemical sales all increased over last year’s quarter,” Exxon Chairman L. G. Rawl said in a press statement. “Higher crude prices and increased operating volumes helped boost earnings from exploration and production operations to their highest quarterly level in four years.”

The company plans nearly $8 billion in capital spending this year, Rawl noted, up from $7.2 billion in 1989.

On Wednesday, Exxon shareholders gathering at the annual meeting in Houston are expected to consider six environmental proposals seeking to make the company more ecologically responsive, in the wake of the Valdez oil spill last year.

Amoco said its first-quarter net income edged up to $466 million from $458 million a year earlier, mainly reflecting higher crude prices.

Revenue of Chicago-based Amoco rose 9.2% to $7.1 billion from $6.5 billion.

Ashland, the 14th-largest U.S. oil company, said its $14-million loss a year earlier included a $9 million after-tax charge stemming from an arbitration award in a commercial dispute.

Second-quarter revenue increased 10.5% to $2.1 billion from $1.9 billion a year earlier.

“Although Ashland improved its results from a year ago, the second quarter again proved to be a difficult earnings period,” said John R. Hall, Ashland’s chairman. “Refinery margins were strong in early January but deteriorated rapidly before improving in late March.”

For the six months ending March 31, Ashland had net income of $23 million, down from $82 million in the same period a year earlier. Six-month revenue rose to $4.3 billion from $4 billion.

Amerada Hess, based in New York, said it earned $39.7 million in the three months ended March 31, down from $220.2 million a year earlier.

Revenue rose 12.2% to $1.66 billion from $1.48 billion a year earlier.

The decline in net income was due to sharply lower earnings from refining and marketing operations and higher corporate charges.

Refining and marketing operations had earnings of $24.5 million in the latest quarter, down from $208.4 million a year earlier, while corporate charges including interest expense rose to $42.5 million from $17 million.

EXXON’S QUARTERLY EARNINGS

Figures in millions except per-share amounts.

First quarter 1990: $1.28 billion, or $1.01 per share.