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Low Oil Prices Pinch Exxon and Chevron Earnings

May 2, 2016

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The two mightiest American oil companies don’t look so mighty any more.

With oil and natural gas prices at record lows and refining profit margins weakening, Exxon Mobil on Friday posted its smallest profit for any quarter since 1999, while Chevron reported a large first-quarter loss of $725 million, in contrast to a gain of $2.6 billion in the period a year earlier.

Weak results were expected, given that oil prices plunged to below $30 a barrel during the first quarter — a 13-year-low — while natural gas prices fell to their lowest level in nearly 17 years.

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