HOUSTON — Exxon Mobil, in a concession to market and regulatory pressures, said Friday that it might be forced to write down the value of some of its oil and gas assets in Canada and elsewhere if energy prices remain low through the end of the year.
The announcement, which accompanied the company's release of another quarter of lackluster earnings, was an apparent reversal of Exxon Mobil's stance in recent years.
The company has long insisted that it has been adequately accounting for the value of its oil and gas reserves — even as many other petroleum companies have taken big write-offs to reflect a two-year price slump.
On Friday, though, the company acknowledged that it faced what could be the biggest accounting revision of reserves in its history. Exxon Mobil might have to concede that 3.6 billion barrels of oil-sand reserves and 1 billion barrels of other North American reserves are currently not profitable to produce.
The way Exxon Mobil accounts for the value of assets still in the ground has made the company a target of inquiries by the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as by New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman.
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Schneiderman, along with many energy experts, has criticized Exxon Mobil for being slow to take into account the impact of anticipated future government actions to curb climate change, which may force energy companies to leave at least some fossil fuels untapped in the ground.
On Friday, Exxon Mobil seemed ready to acknowledge that the value of its assets might change.
"We anticipate that certain quantities of currently booked reserves such as those associated with our Canadian oil sands will not qualify as proven reserves at year-end 2016," Jeff Woodbury, Exxon Mobil's vice president for investor relations, said during a conference call.
Woodbury added that if current price levels persist, other oil and gas operations in North America may have to be written down, although he indicated that they could also be put back on the books if prices recovered sufficiently.
In August, the SEC requested company documents and explanations about the value of Exxon Mobil's reserves, but it has not publicly commented on its inquiry. Exxon Mobil has promised to comply fully with the agency's requests and has expressed confidence that it has met its legal and accounting requirements.
The company has resisted Schneiderman's broader investigation into its accounting and its past public positions on climate change. The New York attorney general contends that Exxon Mobil has misled the public, even as the company's own scientists were warning about the climate impacts of greenhouse-gas emissions from fossil fuels.
Other oil and gas companies, including Exxon Mobil's rivals Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell, have lowered valuations by more than $50 billion since oil prices plunged from over $100 a barrel in 2014 to the current price of around $50 a barrel.
In contrast, Exxon Mobil resisted write-downs, saying that it conservatively valued its assets on a long-term basis and that price volatility was normal in commodity markets.
Exxon Mobil's oil sand reserves in Canada's Alberta province are a prime target for a write-down because they are particularly expensive to mine. Investments in oil sands have been slowing, and several oil companies have given up on the resource. Turning oil sands into a usable form of petroleum requires heavy processing and refining.
Because Exxon Mobil's earnings on oil and gas exploration and production have been in decline, said Brian Youngberg, a senior energy analyst at Edward Jones, "it is increasingly hard for it to demonstrate its reserves as economical in today's world of more moderate oil prices."
"Scrutiny will continue to rise on this issue," Youngberg said, "especially when it updates its reserves in early 2017."
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With the world's oil industry producing over 1 million barrels a day more than global demand, few analysts expect oil prices to rise much through the end of the year — even though the expectation that the OPEC cartel may freeze or cut production in the coming months has moderately stabilized prices in recent months.
Oil prices were as low as $30 a barrel in February. On Friday, West Texas Intermediate oil, a benchmark, was trading just above $49.
The Exxon Mobil announcement came as the company reported third-quarter earnings of $2.7 billion, a 38 percent drop from the comparable period last year. Exxon Mobil has now reported two full years of quarterly declines as a result of low energy prices and recent drops in production and in profit margins on petroleum refining.
Shares of Exxon Mobil stock were down more than 2 percent in early afternoon trading on Friday.
Exxon Mobil's dividend payments continue to exceed profits, which means the company is borrowing and selling assets to finance its payments to shareholders. At the same time, cuts in capital spending are hurting the company's ability to maintain production.
"Although earnings may have bottomed," said Fadel Gheit, a senior Oppenheimer & Co. analyst, "Exxon Mobil is not out of the woods yet and needs a much higher oil price to regain its balance."
Exxon Mobil is far from the only oil company that is suffering from low oil and natural gas prices. ConocoPhillips this week reported a third-quarter loss of $1 billion, as income fell 13 percent.