Posted on 01/30/2006 5:42:55 AM PST by RedBloodedAmerican
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), the world's largest publicly traded oil company, on Monday reported quarterly profit surged 27 percent, capping a record year dominated by soaring oil and gas prices.
Net income in the fourth quarter was $10.71 billion, or $1.71 a share, compared with $8.42 billion, or $1.30 a share, a year earlier.
Excluding one-time items, the company earned $1.65 per share. Analysts, on average, expected $1.45 per share, according to Reuters Estimates.
Crude oil prices rose about 40 percent last year, driven up by tensions in oil-producing countries like Iran and Nigeria and tight supplies.
Exxon's fourth-quarter revenue jumped to $99.66 billion from $83.37 billion a year earlier but fell short of analysts' average forecast of $101.29 billion.
Exxon shares were up 2.5 percent at $62.82 in pre-market trading on the Inet electronic brokerage system.
| ALASKA SUES BP, EXXON MOBILE OVER NATURAL GAS (PRICE COLLUSION) ^ |
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| Posted by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin On News/Activism ^ 12/22/2005 4:33:10 PM EST · 31 replies · 573+ views MSNBC ^ | 22 December 2005 JUNEAU, Alaska - An antitrust lawsuit filed against Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP PLC claims the two oil giants are restricting the nation's supply of natural gas and keeping prices at record highs. The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Fairbanks, says the two companies acted together to eliminate competition for the exploration, development and marketing of natural gas from Alaska's North Slope to U.S. markets. "The only reason for them to collusively not to sell is to try to continue the scarcity that has driven natural gas prices to historic highs," said David Boies, the attorney for... |
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Capitalism Rules.
Capitalism rules, except where competition is stifled by vast regulation stopping new players from entering and succeeding in the market. I'm pro-Oil company, but there is too much environmental red-tape and left-wing agitprop for my taste.
why do you day that? Because you personally think we need more players in the market? That's a qualitative judgement.
Conoco was up 51%.
The last time the gov't tried to break up an oil company was when Atlantic Richfield bought Sinclair. They made them divest the mid-west market, resulting in higher prices for the mid-west. In other words the result was the opposite of what was intended.
Wonder how many Congress critters own Exxon stock...?
Sounds more like a merger not a break up.
I agree, but not just the oil companies.
Most of the major transnationals should be broken up into smaller entities.
Not necessarily because we need more "players" (although that would be a side benefit)
but because the current set of "players" exert undue influence over government policies, rigging the system to their own advantage and to the detriment of the American People.
"Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains."
--Thomas Jefferson to Horatio G. Spafford, 1814. ME 14:119
"I hope we shall... crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country."
--Thomas Jefferson to George Logan, 1816. FE 10:69
"Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power."
-- Benito Mussolini
On the contrary, the only solution that will get good results is less regulation and more competition. The reason the companies must be behemoths to survive is because of the costs, risks, regulations, lobbying costs and political risks associated with this industry. With less governmental interference there will be more competition and lower prices for the consumer.
Kids...History has proved otherwise many, many times.
Why... My stock is up this morning big time...
Probably still a good buy. Trouble with President Ahmajihadding in Iran ain't gonna drive oil prices DOWN that's for sure.
Big Oil corrupts and perverts the political process.
They have found it profitable to restrict the oil supply through government regulation, utilizing environmental activists as convenient boogeymen to blame.
Other transnational corporations employ similar diversions to deceive the American People.
I'd like to tell these people: QUIT GRIPING AND INVEST in OIL if you're so damn certain they're making obscene profits!
Instead, they choose to be miserable and whiny.
I believe in capitalism and the free market... but I got to tell you ... this doesn't make me feel comfortable... it smacks of price gouging, in a global emergency.
In other news, the LA and NY Times lose profits. So sad.
Good for you, and hopefully for you're sake it stays that way.
I don't understand your comment. The gov't forced ARCO to divest all the mid-west market and break up the company into separate units, with separate boards of directors, forcing each unit to then show a profit and raising the cost of operations, which of course was passed on to the consumers. For instance the marine transportation division was orignally a cost center and not operated to make a profit. After the break up, Marine had to show a profit, which cost the Alaskan division on the transportation of crude. Not to mention the increased cost of administration. The divestitures were gradually put back together, though.
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