???? 據今日油價2月2日報道，英國石油公司(BP Plc)提供的數據表明，大型石油公司幾乎還沒有開始愈合去年歷史性暴跌帶來的創傷。
????在大宗商品價格走強的推動下，西方世界最大的能源生產商本應迎來第四季度財報季，但英國石油業績下滑和雪佛龍公司意外虧損顯示出新冠肺炎疫情帶來的持久影響。利潤低于預期主要是由于燃料銷售和煉油利潤的疲軟。
????英國石油勉強維持了一筆微薄的利潤，但這只是疫情爆發前基本水平的一小部分。盡管公司大幅削減了股息和資本支出，但現金流未能覆蓋這兩項支出，這讓人們對該公司維持投資者回報的能力產生了更大的懷疑，該公司股票下跌了4%。
????雷德伯恩分析師斯圖爾特 喬伊納（stuartjoyner）表示：“2020年造成了一個極具挑戰的結尾。營運現金流仍然非常疲弱，未達到預期。我們可能會看到凈債務在第一季度惡化，這將降低股東分配改善的預期。”
????英國石油第四季度經調整后的凈利潤為1.15億美元，低于上年同期的25.7億美元，僅較前三個月略有改善。該公司的凈利潤沒有達到分析師平均預期的4.4億美元。
????不包括墨西哥灣漏油事件支付的營運現金流(對投資者而言，這是決定股息支付和資本支出可持續性的關鍵數據)要弱得多。從第三季度的54億美元降至24億美元。英國石油首席執行官伯納德 魯尼表示:“很明顯，在艱難的2020年結束之際，公司全年業績受到了新冠肺炎疫情的沉重打擊。”
????盡管多數石油公司因原油價格走強而上漲，但在倫敦時間上午9點42分，英國石油股價下跌4%，至256.4便士。
????由于疫苗的推出以及經濟復蘇的前景提振了原油價格和煉油利潤率，投資者原本預計，這慘淡的2020年將以更加積極的狀態結束。一些樂觀情緒已經被市場消化——英國石油及其同行的股價自2020年第三季度末以來出現了兩位數百分比的漲幅。
????然而，煉油業務拖累了該公司的業績。英國石油表示，疫情導致的交易量減少“嚴重”影響了該業務，利潤率持續受到壓力。早前曾在疫情爆發時期有大作為的營銷和交易部門，在第四季度幾乎沒有提供什么幫助，天然氣行業的表現尤其疲弱。
????魯尼表示:“美國的天氣比我們想象的要暖和，而亞洲的天氣比我們想象的要冷，這造成了一些艱難的貿易環境，2021年的開局不容樂觀。”
????截至2020年底，英國石油凈負債較上一季度減少14億美元，至390億美元。盡管如此，該公司表示，預計2021年上半年凈負債還將增加，原因是與員工遣散費、墨西哥灣石油泄漏年度賠償金以及與Equinor ASA的海上風電合資企業完工有關款項的存在。該公司凈負債與權益之比為31%。
????英國石油公司首席財務官默里·奧金克洛斯在一份聲明中表示：“BP仍有望在2021年第四季度至2022年第一季度之間解決350億美元的凈債務目標。這將觸發股票回購，但前提是要保持強勁的投資級信用評級。”
????埃克森美孚將于美國紐約時間上午7點30分公布第四季度收益。
????王佳晶 摘譯自 今日油價
????原文如下：
????BP’s Weak Quarter Shows Big Oil Has Barely Begun Covid Recovery
????BP Plc offered more evidence that Big Oil has barely begun to heal the wounds from last year’s historic slump.
????The Western world’s largest energy producers were supposed to be sailing into the fourth-quarter earnings season with a tailwind from stronger commodity prices, but BP’s miss and Chevron Corp.’s surprise loss show the enduring impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Earnings fell short of expectations mainly due to weak fuel sales and refining margins.
????BP eked out a modest profit, but it was just a fraction of typical pre-pandemic levels. Cash flow, which failed to cover dividends and capital expenditure despite deep cuts to both, raised more fundamental questions about the company’s ability to sustain investor returns. Shares fell 4%.
????“This was a challenging end to 2020,” said Stuart Joyner, an analyst at Redburn. “Operating cash flow remains very weak and missed expectations. We will likely see net debt worsen in the first quarter, which will temper expectations of better shareholder distributions.”
????BP’s fourth-quarter adjusted net income was $115 million, down from $2.57 billion a year earlier and only a slight improvement from the preceding three months. The company fell short of the average analyst estimate of $440 million.
????Operating cash flow excluding Gulf of Mexico spill payments, a key figure for investors as it determines the sustainability of dividend payments and capital expenditure, was much weaker. It fell to $2.4 billion in the period, down from $5.4 billion in the third quarter.
????“Tough quarter, clearly, at the end of a really tough year,” BP Chief Executive Officer Bernard Looney said in a Bloomberg TV interview on Tuesday. “The full-year results were hit hard by Covid.”
????BP shares fell 4% to 256.4 pence at 9:42 a.m. in London, even as most oil companies rallied with stronger crude prices.
????With crude prices and refining margins buoyed by the roll-out of Covid-19 vaccines and the prospect of an economic rebound, investors had been expecting a grim year to end on a more positive note. Some optimism had already been priced in, with shares of BP and its peers posting double-digit percentage gains since the end of the third quarter of 2020.
????Yet refining weighed down the company’s performance. BP said the business was affected “significantly” by lower volumes as a result of the pandemic, with continuing pressure on margins.
????Marketing and trading, which came to BP’s rescue earlier in the pandemic, offered little assistance in the fourth quarter, with a particularly weak performance on natural gas.
????“Weather was warmer in the United States than we thought and colder in Asia than we thought, and that made for some difficult trading conditions,” Looney said. Trading is off to a “very good” start this year, he said.
????Net debt was down $1.4 billion from the preceding quarter to $39 billion at year-end. Still, BP said it expects the figure to increase in the first half of 2021, driven by payments related to employee severance, the annual Gulf of Mexico oil spill compensation, and the completion of the offshore wind joint venture with Equinor ASA. The ratio of net debt to equity was 31%.
????BP remains on track to meet its net-debt target of $35 billion between the fourth quarter of 2021 and first quarter of 2022, “which will trigger the start of share buybacks, subject to maintaining a strong investment grade credit rating,” Chief Financial Officer Murray Auchincloss said in a statement.
????Exxon Mobil Corp. will publish its fourth-quarter earnings at 7:30 a.m. New York time.
