Chevron 1st Quarter Production to Slide

Chevron Corp. said its first-quarter global oil and gas production is expected to drop from the year-ago quarter, as poor weather led to downtime in the U.S., Canada and other regions.

Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company in market value after Exxon Mobil Corp., forecast first-quarter earnings to be lower than the fourth quarter, hurt by foreign-currency fluctuations and asset impairments and other charges.

The company said global oil-equivalent production in January and February totaled 2.58 million barrels a day, down 2.5% from the year-ago period.

Throughout the oil giant's interim report, Chevron compared the first two months of the first quarter with the entire quarter of the year-earlier period and all of the fourth quarter of 2013.

Chevron's U.S. production in the first two months of the quarter reached about 637,000 barrels of oil and natural gas a day, an decrease of 1.1% from a year earlier and falling 2% from the fourth quarter.

International production reached 1.94 million barrels a day, falling 2% from a year ago but rising 0.8% sequentially.

Chevron said current-year production has been stung by poor weather across multiple regions, including Kazakhstan, Canada and the U.S.

Realized U.S. oil prices decreased 3.4% from the first quarter of 2013 to an average of $91.26 a barrel, while international oil prices fell 3.9% to $98.37.

Realized U.S. natural-gas prices averaged $4.70 per thousand cubic feet in the first two months of the quarter, 51% higher than a year ago. Outside the U.S., natural-gas prices averaged $5.95 per thousand cubic feet, down 2% from last year.

Chevron is slated to report full first-quarter results on May 2.

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