Chevron's profits dragged lower by poor US sales; upstream outperforms

Chevron's downstream business suffered in the first quarter amid the impact of Covid-19, with US sales of refined products dropping 9% year-on-year, but rising oil and gas prices helped the oil company to post Q1 profits of $1.4 billion.

Sales of refined products dropped to 1.05 million b/d, mainly due to lower jet fuel, gasoline and diesel sales amid the restrictions imposed to curb Covid-19.

US refinery crude oil input in the first quarter also decreased 9% to 881,000 b/d from a year earlier in response to lower demand.

Outside of the US, refined product sales of 1.27 million b/d were around the same as a year ago.

The US downstream business posted a loss of $130 million, while the international downstream business posted earnings of $135 million.

But there was a reverse picture in the upstream segments, where US operations outperformed the rest of the world.

US upstream operations earned $941 million in the first quarter 2021, up from $241 million a year earlier.

The company's average sales price per barrel of crude oil and natural gas liquids was $48 in the first quarter 2021, up from $37 a year earlier. 

International upstream operations earned $1.41 billion in the first quarter 2021, down from $2.68 billion a year ago, partly because of weaker gas prices.

The average sales price for crude oil and natural gas liquids in the first quarter 2021 was $56 per barrel, up from $43 a year earlier.

But the average sales price of natural gas was $4.72 per thousand cubic feet in the first quarter, down from $5.66 in last year's first quarter.