Chevron Corp (CVX.N) on Friday reported its biggest quarterly loss in three decades at $8.3 billion and followed fellow oil majors in writing down billions of dollars in assets due to plunging fuel consumption caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Chevron’s loss of $8.27 billion translates to a loss per share of $4.44, compared to a $4.3 billion profit, or $2.27/share, in the same quarter last year.
Chevron’s write-offs totalled $5.6 billion, reflecting the slump in second-quarter fuel and oil demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The writedowns include Chevron’s offshore Gulf of Mexico fields, non-shale operations in the Permian Basin, all investment in sanctions-hit Venezuela, and $1 billion of severance pay for up to 15% of its 45,000 global workforces.
Chevron shares were closed at $83.94 on Friday, having fallen by 31% since the start of the year. Chevron’s crude oil and natural gas production fell by about 189,000 bpd from a year earlier, as it attempted to limit losses by curbing output and earlier property sales.
