Posted on 10/27/2005 7:19:19 AM PDT by sumocide
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research), the world's largest publicly traded oil company, on Thursday said quarterly profit surged 75 percent to nearly $10 billion, raking in a bonanza from record oil prices.
The profit was the highest in the company's history, surpassing the record it set in the 2004 fourth quarter. Revenue jumped 32 percent to just over $100 billion.
Two powerful hurricanes ripped through the Gulf of Mexico in the third quarter, disrupting energy operations in the region and sending oil prices and refining margins sharply higher.
Exxon Mobil said net income rose to $9.9 billion, or $1.58 a share, in the third quarter from $5.68 billion, or 88 cents a share, a year earlier.
Excluding a gain of $1.62 billion from restructuring its stake in a Dutch gas transportation business, earnings were $1.32 per share. On that basis, analysts' average forecast was $1.39, according to Reuters Estimates.
Exxon shares were unchanged at $56.20 in pre-market trade.
The company's oil and gas production fell 4.7 percent from a year earlier as outages caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, maintenance activities, and maturing fields more than offset higher production from new fields in West Africa.
Excluding the impact of the hurricanes, divestments and entitlement effects, output fell 1 percent.
Still, record crude oil prices -- which touched $70 a barrel in the quarter -- pushed earnings at its exploration and production unit to $5.73 billion in the quarter, up $1.8 billion from a year earlier.
At its refining and marketing operations, profit rose to $2.13 billion, up $727 million from a year earlier, as stronger refining margins outweighed weak marketing margins and lower petroleum product sales.
Earnings at its chemicals division tumbled to $472 million, down $537 million from a year earlier, due to higher feedstock costs and lower margins.
Exxon Mobil's capital expenditures jumped to $4.41 billion from $3.63 billion a year earlier.
Shares of Exxon Mobil, the largest of the so-called "super-major" oil companies, rose more than 10 percent in the quarter, underperforming the broader Standard & Poor's integrated oil and gas index, which rose more than 13 percent.
When the price of ____ goes up ____, then those who sell ____ will reap greater profits.
Exxon Mobil reported earnings of $9.9 billion, $1.58 per share, up 75% from the same quarter a year ago. The profit is more than what Microsoft reported in first-quarter sales after the bell today. Put it another way. The company earned $4.48 million an hour in profit during the quarter.
Big Oil: We don't need no more stinking refineries. We like the few that we have JUST FINE!
These obscene profits are the equivalent of an 8.4% return per share. Ghastly horrid greedy. NOT.
Exxon will use the profit to invest in more oil and natural gas development, and to upgrade refineries. That's their business, and that is what they do. Do we want to take the profits, call them windfall, and not have them available to develop petroleum resources? Is Hillary series about crippling the industry and giving us real oil problems?
If I made only an 8.4 % return on my work, i'd get fired!
Your cute little statement makes no sense.
Never been accused of being cute, you trying to get close?????
Send pictures and I will get back to you.
I thot so, just talk....
Back to your point. Even if the supply is controlled by a monopoly that does not mean it can control demand. And there are hundreds of independent producers of oil with thousands of small wells throughout the country. These are not always in operation depending on whether the price is high enough to justify pumping.
In any case the barriers to entry posed by governmental regulation work to the benefit of the larger companies.
However we are not speaking of widgets, we are speaking of the life blood of the world, in particular the United States.
Supply and demand keeps the widget makers in line. However oil affects everyone, immediately.
This fact allows a handful of people around the world to manipulate the market, thus supply and demand is skewed in their favor.
Still makes no sense.
Supply is controlled by producers (and governments) demand is controlled by consumers. Last month saw the greatest drop in consumer demand on record.
Contrary to popular opinion even demand for oil is subject to price elasticity.
There have always been relatively large corporations in the world economy. Before oil you had the East India Company, Railroad barons, Financiers with great power, Astor, the Rothschields, the Medici bankers, the Fuggers.
I'm pretty sure the chart shows the split-adjusted price, so you shouldn't multiply the number of shares.
Oil is so vital to world economy that a few cannot be allowed to determine "supply".
If they have that much power, why hasn't gas always been $5/gallon?
Hooray for Exxon Mobile! F-ck Bill O'Reilly (not even my neighbor's dog would want to).
Oil people well know what their limits are, overdo it and they will be taken over by government.
Then why wouldn't the value double at each split?
You and i mostly seem to disagree on stuff. Not here tonight.
See #12.
You raise a good point. With those kind of profits what exactly is big oil's impetus for building new refineries?
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