ExxonMobil Q3 Earnings Double to $15.4bn, BP Cuts Net Debt to $13.9bn
Two oil majors reported third-quarter results on 30 October: ExxonMobil’s earnings more than doubled from a year earlier to $15.4 billion, and BP cut its net debt by $8.4 billion.
For shareholders of both, the quarter produced strong cash, and the two companies now point it in different directions. In The Edge’s reading, ExxonMobil is turning strong cash flow into a $20 billion buyback commitment for 2027, while BP is still putting debt reduction first and says it remains too leveraged. The results follow Shell’s and TotalEnergies’ third-quarter figures, set out on 29 October.
Energy Products overtakes Upstream as ExxonMobil’s largest earner
ExxonMobil earned $15.4 billion under US accounting rules in the third quarter, or $3.72 a share. That compares with $7.5 billion a year earlier and is 6.1% above the second quarter.
Adjusted earnings, which exclude identified items and estimated timing effects, mainly on derivatives, were $17.5 billion, or $4.23 a share. They rose 19.2% from the second quarter. A year earlier the company reported a narrower measure, earnings excluding identified items, of $8.1 billion.
The gap between the two measures this quarter comes from timing effects, mainly on unsettled derivatives, which reduced reported earnings by $2.5 billion. Net identified items of $449 million, chiefly a $675 million gain on asset sales, partly offset them.
Energy Products drove the quarter. Its adjusted earnings rose to $9.1 billion from $4.1 billion in the second quarter. The company said higher margins and strong operations, including 100% crude unit utilization at its US Gulf Coast refineries, more than offset external impacts on its global capacity utilization.
Upstream moved the other way. Its adjusted earnings fell 20.5% to $7.3 billion on lower prices and an accelerated Guyana entitlement impact. On the adjusted measure, that left Energy Products $1.7 billion ahead of Upstream for the quarter.
On the same adjusted basis, Chemical Products earned $725 million, down from $1.2 billion in the second quarter, as margins declined. Specialty Products rose to $1.3 billion on higher basestock margins.
Upstream production averaged 4,496 thousand oil-equivalent barrels a day, 5.7% below a year earlier. For the nine months, production averaged 4,534 thousand oil-equivalent barrels a day, down from 4,651 thousand a year earlier.
The company cited volume growth in Guyana, the Permian and Golden Pass LNG, partly offset by Middle East volume impacts, in explaining higher nine-month Upstream earnings; the release does not explain the third quarter’s production decline.
ExxonMobil earnings by segment, US GAAP (in $ millions)
| Segment | 3Q26 | 2Q26 | 3Q25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upstream | 7,088 | 7,927 | 5,679 |
| Energy Products | 7,169 | 5,465 | 1,840 |
| Chemical Products | 735 | 1,131 | 515 |
| Specialty Products | 1,285 | 956 | 740 |
| Corporate and financing | -864 | -954 | -1,226 |
| Total | 15,413 | 14,525 | 7,548 |
Third-quarter 2025 figures are from the company’s release of 31 October 2025; negative figures are losses.
ExxonMobil pays out $9.4 billion and sets $20 billion of buybacks for 2027
Cash flow from operating activities was $25.7 billion, against $14.8 billion a year earlier. Free cash flow was $19.1 billion, up 10.9% on the second quarter.
Shareholder distributions came to $9.4 billion, less than half of the quarter’s free cash flow. Dividends made up $4.3 billion and share repurchases $5.1 billion.
Net debt was $22.1 billion at 30 September. That is total debt of $34.3 billion less $12.2 billion of cash and cash equivalents. The company said it had reduced net debt by nearly $11 billion so far this year.
The company announced $20 billion of share repurchases for 2027, assuming reasonable market conditions. It declared a fourth-quarter dividend of $1.07 a share. That is 3.9% above the $1.03 set for the fourth quarter of 2025.
Darren Woods, the chairman and chief executive, said investments, technology and cost savings were expanding the company’s earnings power, calling them “lasting improvements, not simply the result of favorable prices and margins.” The company puts its cumulative structural cost savings since 2019 at an estimated $16.9 billion, including $1.8 billion in the first nine months of 2026.
ExxonMobil adjusted earnings and cash flow (in $ millions)
| Measure | 3Q26 | 2Q26 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adjusted earnings | 17,505 | 14,680 | 19.2% |
| Upstream, adjusted | 7,308 | 9,189 | -20.5% |
| Energy Products, adjusted | 9,053 | 4,099 | 120.9% |
| Operating cash flow | 25,650 | 23,555 | 8.9% |
| Free cash flow | 19,109 | 17,236 | 10.9% |
| Cash capital expenditure | 7,002 | 6,787 | 3.2% |
Change is against the second quarter of 2026. Adjusted earnings and free cash flow are the company’s non-GAAP measures.
Also among the oil majors, BP lifts underlying profit to $8.5 billion
BP’s underlying replacement cost profit, the measure it leads with, rose to $8.5 billion from $5.7 billion in the second quarter. A year earlier it was $2.2 billion.
BP said the rise mainly reflected significantly higher realized refining margins and a significantly higher gas marketing and trading result. Its underlying effective tax rate fell to 28% from 34%.
Profit attributable to shareholders was $4.7 billion, against $1.2 billion a year earlier. The underlying figure excludes $1.6 billion of inventory holding gains and adds back a $5.4 billion net charge from adjusting items.
Those items include post-tax net impairments of $4.0 billion, which the company linked largely to transition businesses. Including those items, replacement cost profit, which strips out only inventory holding gains, fell to $3.1 billion from $4.6 billion in the second quarter.
Customers and products earned $6.9 billion on an underlying basis before interest and tax, up from $5.0 billion. Within it, products rose by $2.5 billion, while customers fell by $0.5 billion on weaker fuels margins and lower results at Castrol and midstream, partly offset by seasonal volumes and lower costs.
Gas and low carbon energy rose to $3.2 billion from $2.1 billion. Oil production and operations eased to $3.5 billion from $3.6 billion on lower liquids realizations.
Operating cash flow rose 36.6% from the second quarter to $14.8 billion. It included a $0.5 billion release of working capital.
Net debt fell to $13.9 billion from $22.3 billion at the end of June. It is 46.8% below its level a year earlier.
Meg O’Neill, the chief executive, said BP had now delivered its net debt and structural cost reduction targets. The company said it is “still too leveraged” and that strengthening the balance sheet remains its first job.
It said it agreed last week with the State of Louisiana to accelerate its Deepwater Horizon settlement commitments, and intends to put excess cash toward the remaining liabilities in full. The Castrol sale, expected to close imminently, would unlock $6 billion.
BP left its dividend unchanged at 8.660 cents a share from the second quarter, 4.1% above a year earlier.
BP third-quarter results (in $ millions)
| Measure | 3Q26 | 2Q26 | 3Q25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Profit attributable to shareholders | 4,696 | 3,911 | 1,161 |
| Replacement cost profit | 3,098 | 4,628 | 1,223 |
| Underlying RC profit | 8,458 | 5,732 | 2,210 |
| Operating cash flow | 14,829 | 10,858 | 7,786 |
| Capital expenditure | 3,036 | 3,086 | 3,381 |
| Net debt | 13,870 | 22,251 | 26,054 |
| Underlying operating costs | 5,264 | 5,333 | 5,487 |
Replacement cost profit, underlying RC profit and net debt are the company’s non-IFRS measures; net debt is at the end of each quarter.
BP operating measures
| Measure | 3Q26 | 2Q26 |
|---|---|---|
| Upstream plant reliability | 95.3% | 92.4% |
| Refining availability | 96.5% | 94.7% |
| Refining throughput, mb/d | 1,396 | 1,467 |
| Production, mmboe/d | 2.2 | 2.2 |
Refining throughput reflects the sale of the Gelsenkirchen refinery.
What to watch: ExxonMobil pays its fourth-quarter dividend on 10 December to shareholders of record on 16 November. BP sets out its strategy and outlook update, with longer-term plans and a capital frame, on 15 December.
Figures are from ExxonMobil’s third-quarter 2026 earnings release of 30 October 2026 and its third-quarter 2025 release, and from BP’s third-quarter 2026 results release of 30 October 2026. ExxonMobil reports under US GAAP and BP under IFRS, so their profit measures are not directly comparable. Percentages and comparisons not attributed to a source are The Edge’s calculations.
Sources: ExxonMobil, BP, The Edge.
