Oil steadies near $96 while refiners and gas exporters post a strong quarter
Crude settled close to where it started after a wide trading range, while quarterly results across refining, pipelines and LNG equipment showed where energy profits are concentrating.
U.S. crude futures covered a wide range on Tuesday and finished almost where they began. December West Texas Intermediate traded between $93.59 and $98.82 a barrel before settling at $96.09, down 37 cents, while January Brent settled at $103.60, down $1.17. December WTI was quoted higher again early Wednesday, at $96.56.
Refining margins drive the quarter
Phillips 66 reported earnings and adjusted earnings of $5.6 billion, or $14.08 a share, for the third quarter, according to the company results summarized in the report. Refining utilization reached 98%, and the realized refining margin rose to $38.00 a barrel from $24.08 in the second quarter, a jump the company linked mainly to wider market crack spreads. The refiner also returned $2.8 billion to shareholders and cut total debt by $2.0 billion to $18.5 billion.
Gas producers and pipelines lean into LNG
EQT, one of the largest U.S. natural gas producers, reported third-quarter sales volume of 583 billion cubic feet equivalent, including 21 billion cubic feet equivalent of strategic curtailments, according to the report. Capital spending of $638 million came in below the low end of guidance, and free cash flow attributable to EQT was $283 million. The company also highlighted a proposed acquisition of Range Resources, a 10-year liquefied natural gas sales agreement with Lithuania's Ignitis Group, and a 3% dividend increase.
Williams reported third-quarter adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $2.039 billion, up 6% from a year earlier, with adjusted earnings of $0.54 per diluted share, up 10%. The pipeline operator said it was tracking toward the upper half of its 2026 guidance of $8.3 billion to $8.5 billion, after closing its acquisition of Momentum Midstream and adding 413 million cubic feet per day of capacity across four projects.
Baker Hughes, which supplies equipment to the energy industry, reported total orders of $10.8 billion, including $5.9 billion in its Industrial and Energy Technology segment, with remaining performance obligations of $46.4 billion. The company cited a major LNG award from Venture Global for the Plaquemines expansion and an order covering 13 gas turbine-driven compression systems for Venture Global's Cloud Connector Pipeline project, and said it was raising full-year order guidance for the segment.
Imperial Oil reported record quarterly net income of C$2,454 million, or C$5.11 per diluted share, with upstream production averaging 418,000 gross oil-equivalent barrels a day.
What to watch next
The U.S. Energy Information Administration's October outlook, released October 6, forecast Brent averaging $105 a barrel in the fourth quarter before falling to an average of $84 next year, according to the report. It also forecast U.S. LNG exports rising to 17.6 billion cubic feet a day in 2026 and 18.6 billion in 2027, up from 15.1 billion in 2025. Commercial crude inventories excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve stood at 410.6 million barrels in the week ending October 23, down 1.9 million barrels from the prior week, with the next EIA outlook scheduled for November 10.
Written by the BidAsk Newsroom. Based on reporting from the sources below.
