Exxon sets profit record of 10.7 billion

mzkhadir

Diamond Member
Mar 6, 2003
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IRVING, Texas - Exxon Mobil Corp. posted a record quarterly profit for a U.S. company on Monday ? $10.71 billion in the fourth quarter ? as the world?s biggest publicly traded oil company benefited from high oil and gas prices and demand for refined products.

The company?s earnings amounted to $1.71 per share, up from $8.42 billion, or $1.30 per share, in the year ago quarter. The result topped the then-record quarterly profit of $9.92 billion Exxon posted in the 2005 third quarter.

The recent quarter included a $390 million gain related to a litigation settlement. Excluding special items, earnings were $10.32 billion, or $1.65 per share. The result topped Wall Street?s expectations. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial predicted earnings of $1.44 per share.

Quarterly revenue ballooned to $99.66 billion from $83.37 billion a year ago but came in shy of the $100.72 billion Exxon posted in the third quarter, which was the first time a U.S. public company generated more than $100 billion in sales in a single quarter.

By segment, exploration and production earnings rose sharply to $7.04 billion, up $2.15 billion from the 2004 quarter, reflecting higher crude oil and natural gas prices. Production decreased by 1 percent due to the lingering effects of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which battered the Gulf Coast in August and September.

The company?s refining and marketing segment reported $2.39 billion in earnings, as higher refining and marketing margins helped offset the residual effects of the hurricanes.

Exxon?s chemicals business saw earnings, excluding special items, decline by $413 million to $835 million, as higher materials costs squeezed margins.

For the full year, net income surged 43 percent to $36.13 billion, or $5.71 per share, from $25.33 billion, or $3.89 per share, in 2004. Annual revenue grew to $371 billion from $298.04 billion.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11098458/
 

Fenixgoon

Lifer
Jun 30, 2003
32,420
11,451
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what's funny is that they sell oil at pennies per gallon. everyone realizes this, right?

they spend billions to find, extract, refine, refine more, refine even more, refine for a specific region of the US/world, and post a profit - selling it cheaper to you than a gallon of milk.
 
Jun 18, 2000
11,164
740
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Originally posted by: mzkhadir
IRVING, Texas - Exxon Mobil Corp. posted a record quarterly profit for a U.S. company on Monday ? $10.71 billion in the fourth quarter ? as the world?s biggest publicly traded oil company benefited from high oil and gas prices and demand for refined products.
...
Exxon?s chemicals business saw earnings, excluding special items, decline by $413 million to $835 million, as higher materials costs squeezed margins.
Think maybe the high prices of their oil and gas products hurt the margins on their "chemicals business"? That's what happens when you squeeze your suppliers.

Given Exxon's quarterly revenue, it isn't surprising to see profit that high. The margin still isn't that high, is it?
 

eelw

Diamond Member
Dec 4, 1999
9,917
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Originally posted by: Fenixgoonselling it cheaper to you than a gallon of milk.

But we don't consume a gallon a milk a day, now do we??????????
 

Strk

Lifer
Nov 23, 2003
10,197
4
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Originally posted by: KnightBreed
Originally posted by: mzkhadir
IRVING, Texas - Exxon Mobil Corp. posted a record quarterly profit for a U.S. company on Monday ? $10.71 billion in the fourth quarter ? as the world?s biggest publicly traded oil company benefited from high oil and gas prices and demand for refined products.
...
Exxon?s chemicals business saw earnings, excluding special items, decline by $413 million to $835 million, as higher materials costs squeezed margins.
Think maybe the high prices of their oil and gas products hurt the margins on their "chemicals business"? That's what happens when you squeeze your suppliers.

Given Exxon's quarterly revenue, it isn't surprising to see profit that high. The margin still isn't that high, is it?

It's around 10%.

Who sets the oil prices?

A bunch of paranoid idiots.
 

Hummin

Senior member
Dec 11, 2005
278
0
0
Well, I guess we have no one to blame but ourselves for this.

There are a few things that have always bothered me about the oil companies and the party line put forth by all of them.....sort of reminds me of the tobacco company execs during their "investigation" by the Senate....."Cigarettes are not addictive."

First, the oil companies steadfastly maintain that their profit margin is exactly the same as it always has been, regardless of oil prices. I do find that hard to believe when the profits shown by the same oil companies keep growing larger and larger. Now, I do understand that demand is going up, but I cannot see the demand growing that fast to account for the burgeoning profits.

Second, I laugh when the oil co. execs say, with a straight face, that gas prices are slow to fall because of the extended time line of converting oil into gas. The line put forth suggests it takes upwards of 90 days to reflect lower wellhead prices at the gas pump. Of course, this flies in contrast to the gas prices jumping daily, and sometimes several times a day, in reaction to higher well prices or bad news.

So how do they justify raising prices daily but lowering them to suit themselves? And it's not just gas station owners doing it on their own......a news interview with a station owner 2 years ago pointed out this fact. He had the honesty to say the company he represented (Exxon, btw) had faxed him price increases 3 times that day.....all the while he had never had a delivery of gas during that day.

So the gas in the underground tanks becomes more expensive despite its purchase price being lower than what's being paid today? Huh? I don't see any other commodity doing that.....milk, cpu chips, etc. Most other items are raised in price as the higer cost items hit the shelves. But not gas/fuel.....the price raises at the whim of the companies, no matter what the price was paid originally.

Now, I do understand there is spot-pricing of oil and gas, and it is higher than contracted prices for gas/oil, but I cannot believe that demand has chronically outstripped supply at the major chains for years to justify the ever-increasing profit margins that are reported.

Just call me a skeptic, but something smells.......and of course, we get platitudes from this administration but no action, no investigation, nothing. Why would they? The White House is heavily invested in the oil companies so they see no reason to reduce their portfolio's worth.

(And spare me the "Their stocks are in a blind trust" argument. If their stocks were truly in a blind trust, the trust would have sold everything that was being held and then repurchased new stock holdings so the owner, such as Cheney, would have no idea what he was actually invested in. That is a true blind trust.....what is being touted as a trust these days is just the inability of the owner to manipulate buying and selling of their portfolio, not being blind as to what they own.)

Oh well, such is life and it continues.