By Sheila Dang HOUSTON, Jan 30 (Reuters) – Exxon Mobil beat Wall Street targets in fourth-quarter earnings reported on Friday, with higher oil production in profitable Permian Basin and Guyana assets helping to boost the No. 1 U.S. oil producer's results. Adjusted earnings for the October to December quarter were $1.71 per share, beating a consensus estimate of $1.68 per share from analyst data compiled by LSEG. Shares fell 2.8% in premarket trading. Oil producer profits were under pressure throughout 2025 as an oversupplied crude market pushed Brent oil futures down 19% last year. Exxon's full-year 2025 adjusted profit declined by a narrower margin of 10%, however, as the company focused on cutting costs. "We're capturing more value from every barrel and molecule we produce and building growth platforms at scale – creating a long runway of profitable growth through 2030 and beyond," Exxon CEO Darren Woods said in a statement. Annual upstream production reached its highest point in more than 40 years at 4.7 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, the company said. In the fourth quarter, production reached nearly 5 million boepd, up from 4.8 million boepd in the previous quarter. During an earnings call with analysts later on Friday, Woods will likely face questions about how the company is evaluating the possibility of reentering Venezuela, following the U.S. capture and removal of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro earlier this month. U.S. President Donald Trump has urged American companies to spend billions in the country to revive the oil industry. Woods called the country "uninvestable" during a White House meeting with Trump and other oil executives, saying the company needed investment protections because its assets had been expropriated twice before. The company remains open to visiting the country with a technical team to explore options, Reuters has reported, citing a source familiar with Exxon's thinking. Exxon paid $17.2 billion in dividends and repurchased $20 billion worth of shares last year. The company said it plans to buy back the same amount through 2026. Adjusted upstream earnings in the fourth quarter were $4.4 billion, down from $5.7 billion the previous quarter. Adjusted downstream profit rose 60% sequentially to $2.9 billion. The chemicals division reported an adjusted loss of $11 million compared with profit of $515 million in the third quarter, due to weaker margins, writedowns and higher seasonal spending, Exxon said. Exxon's capital expenditures totaled $29 billion last year. The oil producer has said capex this year will be between $27 billion and $29 billion. (Reporting by Sheila Dang in Houston; Editing by Nathan Crooks, Tom Hogue and Nick Zieminski)
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