Global oil giant, Chevron has recorded $1.283 billion net income for the third quarter 2016 and the company said the earnings reflected an improvement from the previous two quarters.
Total revenues dropped to $30.14 billion for the third quarter, from $34.32 billion in the year-ago period. Still, the sales figure slightly beat the Zacks-compiled average analyst estimate of $30.06 billion.
In comparison, for the second quarter this year, Chevron had booked a net loss of $1.47billion thanks to the continued oil price depression. This was down from a profit of $571 million for the second quarter of 2015.
For the third quarter, Chevron’s earnings in the upstream business jumped to $454 million, up from $59 million for the third quarter last year. U.S. upstream operations booked a loss of $212 million, which was smaller than the loss of $603 million for the same period in 2015. Chevron attributed the smaller U.S. upstream losses to lower operating and depreciation expenses, and lower tax items.
International upstream earnings rose to $666 million, compared to $662 million for the third quarter of 2015, on the back of lower expenses and higher natural gas sales. In the downstream business, Chevron’s total earnings dropped to $1.065 billion from $2.211 billion.
The company’s cash flow from operations in the first nine months of 2016 fell to $9.0 billion from $14.9 billion for the same period last year.
Chevron said that it was increasing its quarterly dividend to $1.08 per share, up from $1.07 per share for the second quarter, boasting that it has increased its annual dividend payment for 29 years in a row.