With the revival of oil prices over the past year, numerous companies in the industry have seen their year-over-year profits increase significantly and many have even been posting strong quarter-over-quarter increases. This is good news for shareholders as higher profits should lead to higher dividends and higher stock prices. This is not always the case over a short-term basis though, so in this series we take a brief high level look at the weekly and intra-monthly performance of six large cap oil companies to provide a proxy for the performance of the industry as a whole. 

ExxonMobil 

ExxonMobil (XOM) delivered almost completely flat performance last week, although it was quite volatile with the stock alternating up and down days. The company opened the week of December 11 at $82.95 per share and closed the week at $83.03 per share. This gives the stock a return of 0.1% over the week. 

Source: Fidelity Investments 

However, the stock's two-week performance was somewhat disappointing with it posting a relatively large decline over the December 4 - December 6 period. It began to recover after this, with some slight volatility but failed to reach its December 4, 2017 opening price. On December 4, ExxonMobil opened at $83.21. This gives the stock an overall relatively modest loss of 0.22% over the two-week period. 

Source: Fidelity Investments 

By far the most significant news item affecting ExxonMobil last week and the only one likely to have had an impact on the stock price was the news that the company struck oil off of the coast of Equatorial Guinea on December 11. The company is still attempting to evaluate the size of this find however and a small find would be unlikely to have economic viability when we consider the costs of developing an offshore oil field. This news appears to have had little impact on the stock price as it declined on the same day as the release. 

Chevron

Chevron (CVX) also delivered a loss to investors last week, although in this case the loss was much greater than what ExxonMobil experienced. The stock was also not nearly as volatile as ExxonMobil's, thus the opportunity for trading was somewhat more limited. The stock opened the week at $120.29 per share and closed the week at $119.73 per share. This gives the stock a loss of 0.47% over the week. 

Source: Fidelity Investments 

As was the case with ExxonMobil, Chevron's stock price also suffered from a decline over the two-week period. On Monday, December 4, Chevron opened at $119.81 and reached an intra-day high at $122.30. The stock then declined steeply and then bounced around the $119.80 for the remainder of the two week period, although it did leave this range a few times. Overall, the stock posted a loss of 0.07% over the period. 

Source: Fidelity Investments 

Chevron saw no significant news over the past week that would impact its stock price other than changes in the price of oil, which all the other companies discussed here would also be impacted by. 

BP 

Unlike both ExxonMobil and Chevron, BP (BP) saw its stock price gain over the past week. On December 11, 2017, BP shares opened at $39.79 and rose to $40.28 by the end of the week. This represents a weekly gain of 1.23%.  

Source: Fidelity Investments 

BP shares fell over the December 4 – December 7 period before beginning to rise. The gain that we saw last week thus appears to be a continuation of the trend that started on the 8th. On December 4, BP shares opened at $39.83. Considering the closing price on December 15, the stock thus returned 1.13% to investors over the two-week period. 

Source: Fidelity Investments 

On Wednesday, December 13, it was announced that the Australian government is opposing BP's proposed AUD $1.8 billion takeover of Woolworth's (WOLWF) service stations on anti-trust grounds. This opposition makes it almost certain that this deal will thus not be completed. However, the market barely reacted to this news at all, likely due to the fact that it is such a small deal for a company the size of BP. 

Royal Dutch Shell

Royal Dutch Shell (RDS-A, RDS-B) also saw its stock price increase last week. On December 11, 2017, RDS-A opened at $63.82 per share. By the end of the week, the stock had climbed to $64.70 per share. This represents a weekly gain of 1.38%. 

Source: Fidelity Investments 

The stock's chart over the past two weeks looks remarkably like BP's. Royal Dutch Shell also reported a gain, following a steady decline over the first three days of the period. The company returned a total gain of 0.94% over the past two weeks. 

Source: Fidelity Investments 

Royal Dutch Shell had no significant news over the past week, thus we would think that its performance would be dictated by broader market factors. However, Royal Dutch Shell significantly outperformed Chevron, which was largely in the same position. Of course, Royal Dutch Shell is a European company while Chevron is an American company (although both are multinationals) and so that could have an impact on the differing performance. 

Eni (E) 

Italian oil giant Eni's (E) stock chart for the week of December 11, 2017 looks much scarier than many of its peers as, other than Tuesday, it was a consistent loser. On December 11, the company's stock opened at $32.89, climbed to $33.07 on Tuesday, before falling for the rest of the week. It ended the week at $32.67. This represents a loss of 0.67% over the week. 

Source: Fidelity Investments 

The company's two-week performance was little better as it also posted a loss. However, the chart does look somewhat better, with quite a few up and down days. Overall though, considering the stock opened at $32.93 on December 4, it posted a 0.79% loss over the two-week period. 

Source: Fidelity Investments 

Eni had two significant pieces of news over the past week, both of which could have had an impact on the stock price. The first is that the Italian government suspended its sale of its stake in Eni. As is the case with a few other large European oil companies, the Italian government owns a sizable stake in the oil company as it considers it to be important for the long-term success of the country. This is a situation that can oftentimes make American investors nervous. Thus, the original plan to privatize the company was likely greeted quite well. Now that the sale has been suspended (not cancelled, but suspended), it is possible that some investors no longer liked the company's potential and sold off their respective shares. 

The second important piece of news is that the company was able to raise its estimates of the size of its oil fields off of the coast of Mexico. Due to the drilling success of the Tecoalli 2 well, Eni was able to increase its reserves in Area 1 from 1.4 billion to 2.0 billion barrels, adding nearly 600 million barrels to its reserves. This should have boosted the stock price and by all appearances it did as the news was announced on December 12. However, the stock then quickly gave up those gains. 

Statoil (STO) 

Norway's Statoil (STO) saw a very slight gain in its stock price over the past week. On December 11, 2017, shares of Statoil opened at $20.06 and closed out the week at $20.15. This price action delivered a very small gain of 0.45% to investors. 

Source: Fidelity Investments 

Statoil declined somewhat over the past two weeks, however. On December 4, 2017, the company's ADR shares opened at $20.35 on the NYSE. This gives the stock a two-week loss of 1.0%. Historically, Statoil has not been nearly as volatile as some other oil stocks, largely due to the Norwegian government's substantial stake in it. Indeed, this 1% decline can be considered fairly large by Statoil's standards. 

Source: Fidelity Investments 

Statoil had no notable developments over the past week. However, there have been some problems in the European gas market. In short, a crack was discovered in The Forties Pipeline System and there was an explosion at a major natural gas hub in Austria. The two could significantly impact the supply of natural gas to Europe over the next few weeks. As one of the largest suppliers of gas to Europe, this could impact Statoil in a positive way due to the increasing natural gas prices across the continent as well as the fact that Statoil does not directly depend on the affected system as its major supply line.