U.S. energy giant Exxon Mobil recorded Friday its smallest quarterly profit of 1.81 billion U.S. dollars since 1999 in the first quarter of this year, down 63 percent from a year ago.

The world's biggest publicly traded oil company said in a statement that it lost money in its exploration and production business despite pumping slightly more oil and gas than a year ago.

The profit of the Texas-based company dropped by nearly half in its refining and marketing division. Only the smaller chemicals division made more money than last year.

The company's revenue plunged by 28 percent to 48.71 billion dollars.

On Tuesday, Standard and Poor's downgraded Exxon's credit rating from AAA to AA+ because of expectations of continuing low oil prices.

Meanwhile, the California-based Chevron Corporation also reported a loss of 725 million dollars in the first quarter of this year, its worst since 2002.

The company's revenue fell by 32 percent to 23.55 billion dollars, and it increased the number of jobs it expects to cut this year from 7,000 to 8,000.

Source: XINHUA