The sharp fall in the crude oil price sent second-quarter earnings at ExxonMobil tumbling 52 per cent despite increased oil production and significantly improved results in its downstream operations.

The effect of the fall in the crude oil price – which was about $60 a barrel for most of the quarter, against $104 in the same quarter of 2014 – was most marked in the company’s US production operations.

The world’s largest listed energy group by sales made $47 million net losses in its US upstream operations, against $1.19 billion earnings for the same period last year, reflecting the higher costs of emerging drilling techniques.

The sharp earning declines were in spite of a 3.6 per cent increase in production against last year's second quarter. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2015)