Exxon Mobil Posts Record Profits

Homerboy

Lifer
Mar 1, 2000
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http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080201...exxon_mobil.html?.v=13

Thats $76k per MINUTE profit kids.

Discuss!

AP
Exxon Mobil Posts Record Profits
Friday February 1, 10:15 am ET
By John Porretto, AP Business Writer
Rising Oil Prices Push Exxon Mobil to U.S. Record Annual, Quarterly Profits

HOUSTON (AP) -- Exxon Mobil Corp. on Friday posted the largest annual profit by a U.S. company -- $40.6 billion -- as the world's biggest publicly traded oil company benefited from historic crude prices at year's end.

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Exxon also set a U.S. record for the biggest quarterly profit, posting net income of $11.7 billion for the final three months of 2007, beating its own mark of $10.71 billion in the fourth quarter of 2005.

The previous record for annual profit was $39.5 billion, which Exxon Mobil made in 2006.

The eye-popping results weren't a surprise given record prices for a barrel of oil at the end of 2007. For much of the fourth quarter, they hovered around $90 a barrel, more than 50 percent higher than a year ago.

Crude prices reached an all-time trading high of $100.09 on Jan. 3 but have fallen about 10 percent since.

The record profit for the October-December period amounted to $2.13 a share versus $1.76 a share in 2006. Year-ago net income was $10.25 billion.

Also extraordinary was Exxon Mobil's revenue, which rose 30 percent in the fourth quarter to $116.6 billion from $90 billion a year ago.

For the year, sales rose to $404.5 billion -- the most ever for the Irving, Texas-based company -- from the $377.64 billion it posted in 2006.

In a statement, Exxon Mobil Chairman Rex Tillerson said the company continued to meet the world's energy needs through its "globally diverse resource base."

"Our long-term investment program, in projects often far from major consuming nations, continued to provide resources essential to the increasingly interdependent global energy supply network," Tillerson said.

Exxon Mobil produces about 3 percent of the world's oil.

Its shares fell 65 cents to $85.75 in morning trading after rising as high as $87.86 earlier in the session.

Higher commodity prices in the quarter were clearly evident from earnings at Exxon Mobil's exploration and production arm, known as the upstream. Income rose 32 percent to $8.2 billion from $6.2 billion a year ago.

On an oil-equivalent basis, production increased nearly 1 percent from the fourth quarter of 2006. Excluding the expropriation of its Venezuelan assets last year, divestments and other factors, production rose nearly 3 percent.

Refining and marketing, or downstream, earnings were $2.3 billion, up from nearly 2 billion in the year-ago quarter, as improved refining operations offset lower U.S. refining margins.

In the U.S., downstream earnings were off sharply from a year ago -- $622 million in the most-recent quarter versus $945 million in 2006.

Refining margins -- the difference between the cost of crude and what the company makes on refined products such as gasoline -- have been squeezed in recent months as spiking oil prices outpaced increases in gasoline prices and other refined products.

Already, ConocoPhillips has said record oil prices at the end of 2007 helped it post a 37 percent increase in fourth-quarter profit, even as it produced less crude and natural gas than a year earlier. Its fourth-quarter net income rose to $4.37 billion versus $3.2 billion a year earlier.

ConocoPhillips is the nation's third-largest integrated oil company behind Exxon Mobil and Chevron Corp.

Chevron reporrted separately Friday its profit rose 29.2 percent in the fourth quarter, as surging prices for crude oil offset weak results from its refining business. It earned $4.88 billion, or $2.32 per share, from $3.77 billion, or $1.74 per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 29 percent to $61.41 billion from $47.75 billion.

On Thursday, Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Europe's largest oil company, reported fourth-quarter profit rose 60 percent to $8.47 billion on asset sales and higher oil prices. What's more, the Anglo-Dutch company said full-year net profit was a record $31.3 billion, up 23 percent from the prior year.
 

jpeyton

Moderator in SFF, Notebooks, Pre-Built/Barebones
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Mission Accomplished
 

Modeps

Lifer
Oct 24, 2000
17,254
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I thought they were raising prices because Oil costs were going up... boy am I naive!
 

Ruptga

Lifer
Aug 3, 2006
10,246
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Of course they made profits. If you produced tankfuls of gas at a cost of 2.50/gal and prices go up to 3/gal, what do you think would happen?
 

Queasy

Moderator<br>Console Gaming
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Originally posted by: Xavier434
This is why I do not buy gas from them. I prefer Shell.

Shell posted record profits yesterday.
 

M0R0NI

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Jan 10, 2008
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I really wish one of those companies would invest some of those profits into alternative fuels. But I know they just want to shower in it instead.
 

Queasy

Moderator<br>Console Gaming
Aug 24, 2001
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Originally posted by: FoBoT
Originally posted by: Homerboy
Originally posted by: Queasy
Originally posted by: Xavier434
This is why I do not buy gas from them. I prefer Shell.

Shell posted record profits yesterday.

BP?

all oil companies are making record profits, how could they not

Yep. They are making their money taking the oil out of the ground more than they are selling it at the pump.
 

Beev

Diamond Member
Apr 20, 2006
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Supply and demand. As much as it pisses me off to see gas at $3, I would do the same thing if I were the oil companies.
 

loup garou

Lifer
Feb 17, 2000
35,132
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Originally posted by: M0R0NI
I really wish one of those companies would invest some of those profits into alternative fuels. But I know they just want to shower in it instead.
Shell and BP sure do.
Exxon, they're just in it for the here and now profit, though. Evidenced by this news.
 

Homerboy

Lifer
Mar 1, 2000
30,890
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Originally posted by: FoBoT
Originally posted by: Homerboy
Originally posted by: Queasy
Originally posted by: Xavier434
This is why I do not buy gas from them. I prefer Shell.

Shell posted record profits yesterday.

BP?

all oil companies are making record profits, how could they not

It was a joke :) I realize they are all making money hand over fist. I was just helping him grasp at straws :)
 

Homerboy

Lifer
Mar 1, 2000
30,890
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Originally posted by: Beev
Supply and demand. As much as it pisses me off to see gas at $3, I would do the same thing if I were the oil companies.

I agree every company has the right to turn a profit. But would you say the same thing if your power/heat company raked in mind blowing profits in a year? People often just think of the gasoline prices but don't think any deeper that the cost in a barrel of crude hits you in every way possible. From the cost of food, water, clothes ANYTHING you buy has to be planed, trained or trucked to you and that all takes oil.

Its amazing that these companies are not more tightly gov't regulated. $41B stolen in my opinion.
 

Xavier434

Lifer
Oct 14, 2002
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Originally posted by: Queasy
Originally posted by: Xavier434
This is why I do not buy gas from them. I prefer Shell.

Shell posted record profits yesterday.



*shrug*

I don't know if it actually makes a difference, but I heard it might. I don't lose anything by purchasing Shell over Exxon/Mobile since their prices are the same in my area and the quality is good so I figure why not?
 

slsmnaz

Diamond Member
Mar 13, 2005
4,016
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Has their GP% increased as well? The big numbers are scary until you dig a little deeper. Prices are higher and they are selling more so the profit dollars are bound to increase. As long as their % stays the same this is a non-issue.