The Market And Energy Page, T+282 -- October 30, 2017

ExxonMobil and Chevron production disappoint -- from Bloomberg.

Exxon churned out the equivalent of 3.97 million barrels a day, short of the 4-million average estimate ....

Chevron’s tally was 2.717 million barrels a day, underperforming its 2.777-million average estimate. I

Since 2014, when crude prices crashed, major oil companies have prioritized one thing -- conserving cash. They’ve engaged in mass layoffs, canceled marquee projects and put intense pressure on suppliers and contractors to cut prices. Despite a recent recovery, prices are still about half the level seen three years ago, so there’s little sign that this focus is shifting.

One victim of that strategy for the two big majors may be production.

For Exxon, whose net income jumped by 50 percent in the quarter, the result seemed to vindicate the explorer’s strategy of keeping a hand in all facets of the petroleum industry. 

Chevron is showing the benefits of a sweeping austerity plan that included job cuts, project cancellations and asset sales to protect cash flow during the three-year oil rout.

With crude futures now settling in New York above $52 a barrel, Exxon net income rose 50 percent in the third quarter, with per-share results topping the estimates of all but two of 20 analysts in a Bloomberg survey. At Chevron, third-quarter per-share profit exceeded the 99-cent average estimate.

The biggest U.S. oil producers followed on the heels of Total SA, which earlier Friday disclosed its highest earnings from pumping oil and natural gas in more than two years.

FERC back in business: regains ability to certificate natural gas pipelines.

Three new pipeline projects in the northeast received approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in October, the first projects to be approved since February. 

The three projects approved in October, which are designed to increase the delivery capacity from the Northeast’s Utica and Marcellus natural gas-producing regions, are:

• Supply Header Pipeline: a 1.5 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d), 38-mile pipeline from West Virginia to Pennsylvania
• Atlantic Coast Pipeline: a 1.5 Bcf/d, 600-mile pipeline from West Virginia to North Carolina
• Eastern Shore 2017 Expansion Project: 40 miles in pipeline expansions, providing 0.061 Bcf/d from Pennsylvania to Delaware