Big Oil Slips In Pre-Market; Exxon, Conoco Beat Q2 Views

Big oil stocks were trending down in pre-market action Thursday after two companies in its ranks reported declining second-quarter results that beat expectations.At the same time, crude oil futures were declining slightly on the New York Merchantile exchange.Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) posted a 28 percent gain in profits even as production fell 5.7 percent. The company said it will press on with plans for the Russian arctic in the face of tightening Western sanctions against the country.http://www.benzinga.com/news/earnings/14/07/4745951/update-exxon-mobil-q2-earnings-top-street-viewConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) profits rose 5 percent while its production rose 6 percent.http://www.benzinga.com/news/earnings/14/07/4745299/update-conocophillips-q2-earnings-edge-higher?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+benzinga%2Fnews+%28Channels+-+News%29Chevron Corp., (NYSE: CVX) slated to post second-quarter earnings Friday, said earlier this month that production fell slightly in the second period with flat sequential earnings.Major oil companies' profits are far lower than oil seven or eight years ago according to Leonardo Maugeri a former executive at Italy's Eni oil company and now at Harvard University.Increasing reliance on less profitable natural gas as well as a slowing rate of production growth are responsible for the trend, Maugeri said in a New York Times essay.http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/01/business/energy-environment/an-uphill-climb-for-the-oil-giants.html?pagewanted=allIn pre-market trading Exxon changed hands recently down 1.4 percent at $101.80; Chevron slipped 0.6 percent to 131.77; Conoco was down 0.75 percent at $84.Marathon Oil Corp. (NYSE: MRO) fell 1.2 percent to $39.19 and Royal Dutch Shell plc (NYSE: RDS) dropped 3 percent to $82.90 a share.