[Peakoil] Exxon Mobil posts record US profit

[Antony Barry]

Exxon Mobil posts record US profit

February 2, 2007 - 6:34AM


Oil giant Exxon Mobil has posted the largest annual profit by a US  
company - $US39.5 billion ($A50.94 billion) - even as earnings for  
the last quarter of 2006 declined four per cent.

The 2006 profit topped the previous record, also by Exxon Mobil, of  
$US36.13 billion ($A46.6 billion) set in 2005. The record earnings  
amounted to roughly $US4.5 million ($A5.8 million) an hour for the  
world's largest publicly traded oil company, which produces about  
three per cent of the world's oil.

It also equals the approximate gross domestic product - a measure of  
all goods and services produced within a country in a given year - of  
countries like Ecuador, Luxembourg and Croatia.

Also eyepopping was Exxon Mobil's revenue, which rose to $US377.64  
billion for the year, surpassing the record $US370.68 billion it  
posted in 2005.
...

Exxon Mobil's results for the October-December period mimicked those  
of US competitor ConocoPhillips, which last week said its fourth- 
quarter profit fell 13 per cent - also primarily because of lower  
natural gas prices and refining margins. But hefty earnings earlier  
in the year helped Houston-based ConocoPhillips post its most  
profitable year on record, earning $US15.55 billion ($A20.06 billion).

ConocoPhillips is the third-largest integrated oil company in the US  
behind Exxon Mobil and Chevron Corp., which is scheduled to report  
2006 results Friday.

Also Thursday, Royal Dutch Shell PLC reported a 21 per cent rise in  
fourth-quarter earnings, buoyed in part by high energy prices and the  
sale of some operations. Net profit came to $US5.28 billion, up from  
$US4.37 billion. But excluding divestitures and other one-time items,  
Shell's earnings from oil production fell 3 per cent, while fourth- 
quarter sales were flat at $US75.5 billion.

The Anglo-Dutch company also said it had taken important steps to  
bulk up its proven reserves, which were revealed to have been  
inflated in a 2004 accounting scandal.


...

Source: <http://www.theage.com.au/news/Business/Exxon-Mobil-posts- 
record-US-profit/2007/02/02/1169919499750.html>

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