HOUSTON • Signaling that Big Oil’s heyday is over for now, ConocoPhillips posted an enormous $31.8 billion fourth-quarter loss Wednesday as the energy giant was stung by $34 billion in asset writedowns and plunging crude prices. It also gave a dire forecast for the next couple of years.

Chairman and Chief Executive Jim Mulva said the nation’s third-largest oil company was preparing for a “significant, multiyear recession.”ConocoPhillips was the first of the major oil companies to report fourth-quarter earnings.

Not everyone is expected to follow ConocoPhillips as it lays off hundreds of workers, writes down assets and cuts spending, but earnings across the board are forecast to be the worst anyone has seen in some time. Other oil majors release results over the next week.

The Houston-based company’s net income for the October-December period amounted to a loss of $21.37 per share, compared with a profit of $4.4 billion, or $2.71 per share, a year earlier. Revenue fell 18 percent to $44.5 billion from $52.7 billion a year ago.

Excluding the writedowns and other one-time items, however, adjusted earnings for the fourth quarter were $1.9 billion, or $1.28 a share.

ConocoPhillips advised two weeks ago that it planned to write down the goodwill value of some assets, as well as cut 1,300 jobs and lower capital spending by 18 percent this year.

Photo by