(April 8): Exxon Mobil Corp said 6% of its global first-quarter production was knocked out as the Iran war paralysed much of the Persian Gulf energy industry.
Half of those outages were concentrated at a liquefied natural gas complex in Qatar in which Exxon is a partner, the company said on Wednesday. Two LNG production lines, or trains, were damaged.
“Public reports indicate the damage will take a prolonged period to repair,” Exxon said in a statement. “Pending an on-site evaluation, we are unable to comment on the length of time before the two trains return to normal operations.”
Exxon is among the first of the international supermajors to disclose the war’s impacts on assets it owns or helps operate in and around the Gulf. In normal times, the region accounts for roughly one-fifth of the Texas-based company’s global output.
The oil titan is scheduled to release complete quarterly results on May 1. European rival Shell Plc also published a trading update on Wednesday, in which it reported lower quarterly gas production amid the war.
Qatar has estimated that the damage to the LNG facility will cost about US$20 billion ($25.5 billion) in annual lost revenue and could take half a decade to repair.
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Energy products
Meanwhile, first-quarter earnings at Exxon’s energy-products division, which includes refining and trading, will be US$3.7 billion lower than the final three months of 2025 due to price volatility and the timing of cargoes, the company said.
“These impacts will unwind over time and will result in net positive profit once the underlying transactions are complete,” chief financial officer Neil Hansen said. “These are sound trades and the profitability that will result from them will be material.”
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Excluding the timing effects, per-share earnings were higher than the prior quarter.
Big Oil executives have consistently warned that financial markets have underestimated the severity of the conflict’s impact on energy supplies.
The war “has upended the perception of the Gulf as a safe and investable hub,” JPMorgan Chase & Co strategists wrote in an April 6 note. “Countries such as Qatar and Kuwait face severe near-term growth hits, with the broader region likely to suffer longer-term damage” to foreign investment.
Exxon expects first-quarter gains of about US$2.1 billion and US$400 million from higher crude and natural gas prices, respectively.
Chief executive officer Darren Woods has increased output more than 30% in the past three years to the equivalent of almost five million barrels a day via acquisitions and aggressive growth projects.
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