Exxon Mobil’s U.S. refineries lost about $2.3 million a day last quarter as gasoline and diesel prices fell. Shell, whose refining earnings declined 47 percent, said the plunge in demand will keep profit margins narrow in “the short and medium term” and a quick recovery in energy usage and prices is unlikely.


Oil companies around the world are slashing costs, cutting jobs and holding back on some new investment to halt the slide in earnings, even as they seek to fund renewable energy projects. Exxon Mobil cut its capital-spending estimate for 2009 by 10 percent as third-quarter profits at the Irving, Texas- based explorer and Shell hit their lowest level in six years.

“Low oil prices and tight refining margins are going to continue to haunt the majors this quarter and into the next quarter,” said Gianna Bern, president of energy consultancy Brookshire Advisory & Research Inc. in Flossmoor, Illinois. Crude oil has averaged $59 a barrel in New York this year, compared with $99.75 in 2008.

While fuel consumption slowed, crude producers pumped 3.68 million barrels in excess of worldwide demand during the third quarter, equivalent to the combined daily production of Kuwait and Libya, according to the International Energy Agency in Paris. Oil futures in the period slid almost $50 a barrel from their year-earlier average and natural gas hit a seven-year low.