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Recently, driven by heightened concerns over supply surplus and the resumption of talks between Russia and Ukraine, international oil prices have continued to fall, resulting in a weak finish to the oil market for the year. However, international oil giants still achieved strong performance thanks to cost-cutting measures. The latest survey by the Federal Reserve of Dallas shows that nearly half of oil industry executives stated that, due to low prices, their companies’ business prospects for the current year have worsened further compared to last year. An oil company executive revealed that falling oil prices have caused several oil wells to operate at a loss ； Another senior executive with 50 years of industry experience lamented that last month, due to natural gas prices falling below contract levels, the company had to cover the costs itself to enable buyers to pick up the goods; such an unprecedented situation has severely undermined the profit expectations for oil and gas development projects. Against this backdrop, international oil giants have performed better than expected: despite a decline in profits on a year-on-year basis, their financial results remained stable. Taking ExxonMobil as an example, its net profit in the third quarter was $7.54 billion, a 12.4% decline year-on-year, while its revenue was $85.3 billion, down 5.3% on a year-on-year basis ； Net profit for the first three quarters was $22.3 billion, a 14.3% decrease year-on-year. It is worth noting that ExxonMobil, together with the other four major oil companies – Chevron, Shell, and TotalEnergies – achieved a combined net profit of over $21 billion in the third quarter. This achievement is particularly impressive given that oil prices have dropped by over 20% on a year-on-year basis. In fact, the core of the profitability resilience of oil giants lies in continuous cost reduction and efficiency improvement. In the third quarter, ExxonMobil achieved additional structural cost savings of $2.2 billion through automation upgrades, supply chain optimization, and operational technology innovations. The total savings since 2019 have exceeded $14 billion, with a goal of reaching over $18 billion in cumulative savings by the end of 2030. Currently, ExxonMobil’s break-even point is 10 to 15 dollars per barrel lower than it was five years ago, and the weighted break-even point for its asset portfolio is only 40 to 42 dollars per barrel; thus, it still has a considerable profit margin even if oil prices drop to 60 dollars per barrel. At the same time, its production continues to increase, with the daily oil and gas output rising to 4.7 million barrels of oil equivalent; of this amount, the Permian Basin contributes 1.7 million barrels of oil equivalent, while Guyana contributes 700,000 barrels of oil equivalent. It is predicted that the Yellowtail project under its umbrella will come online 4 months ahead of schedule, with a daily production capacity of 250,000 oil equivalents, thereby helping to push Guyana’s total production capacity above 900,000 oil equivalents per day. Chevron’s performance was equally impressive. In the third quarter, its global daily production reached 4.09 million barrels of oil equivalent, an increase of 21% on a year-on-year basis. The daily production in the United States alone was 2.04 million barrels of oil equivalent, with a 27% increase year-on-year; both figures hit record highs. In terms of performance, its net profit in the third quarter dropped to $3.54 billion, and earnings per share fell from $2.48 to $1.82. However, revenue declined only slightly to $48.17 billion, with the increase in production effectively offsetting the negative impact of falling oil prices. Regarding trends in 2026, oil industry executives generally expect the oil market to remain sluggish: the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) at the end of the year is projected to be $62 per barrel, which is lower than the average price of $65.32 predicted by the U.S. Energy Information Administration for 2025. According to the EIA forecast, the average price of Brent crude oil in 2026 could be 55.08 dollars per barrel, while the average price of WTI crude oil is expected to drop to 51.42 dollars per barrel. There are significant variables in the market supply and demand dynamics: if the *** government facilitates an end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and lifts sanctions on Russia, the oil market could face a severe situation of oversupply by 2026 ； If the sanctions continue, coupled with production cuts by Iran and Venezuela, the market is likely to reach equilibrium. However, oil industry executives are more optimistic about the long-term trend of the crude oil market, predicting that the average WTI price will rise to $69 per barrel by 2027, and further increase to $75 per barrel by 2029 and 2030.