With 4Q22 results continuing to roll in for energy companies over the coming weeks, earnings are certainly top of mind for investors. Many energy companies will have closed the books on their most profitable year ever, and attention has already turned to 2023. Today’s note discusses the outlook for energy earnings in 2023, why a likely year-over-year decline should not be worrisome, and why energy infrastructure may prove the exception to the broader trend of lower energy earnings.
When the energy crisis hit a nadir two years ago, highly indebted oil and gas companies quickly changed their playbook, adopting stricter cost discipline, cutting back on expensive drilling programs and vowing to return more cash to shareholders in the form of dividends and buybacks.
Refining margins in Asia have dropped in recent weeks as China ramped up exports of fuels amid high export quotas assigned to its refiners in recent months.
Crude oil prices inched lower today, after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a crude oil inventory build of 4.1 million barrels for the week to January 27.
The Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) of the OPEC+ group recommended that no changes be made to the current oil production quotas during a meeting on Wednesday, as widely expected.
Oil prices were broadly stable as the market is looking towards a meeting of OPEC and its allies as well as a Federal Reserve rate decision and US government data on crude and fuel stockpiles on Wednesday.
Oil and gas giant Shell has reported record annual profits after energy prices surged last year following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said that “small steps” would be needed for Moscow and the United States to come closer to an agreement on bilateral issues, the RIA news agency reported on Monday.
The global oil and gas exploration sector in 2022 had its strongest year in more than a decade in value terms, with at least $33 billion added through new discoveries, a report by consultancy Wood Mackenzie has claimed.
Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman announced the Kingdom’s strategic plans to increase its production of oil, gas and clean energy.