Comments anyone?

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Exxon Mobil Posts New Record for Profit
By STEVE QUINN, Associated Press Writer

Exxon Mobil Corp. had a quarter for the record books. The world's largest publicly traded oil company said Thursday high oil and natural-gas prices helped its third-quarter profit surge almost 75 percent to $9.92 billion, the largest quarterly profit for a U.S. company ever, and it was the first to ring up more than $100 billion in quarterly sales.

Net income ballooned to $9.92 billion, or $1.58 per share, from $5.68 billion, or 88 cents per share, a year ago.

Excluding certain items, earnings were $8.3 billion, or $1.32 per share, versus $6.23 billion, or 96 cents per share, in the 2004 quarter.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial, on average, predicted earnings excluding items of $1.38 per share.

Revenue grew to $100.72 billion from $76.38 billion in the prior-year period.

Howard Silverblatt, equity analyst at Standard & Poor's, said both the net income and sales figures are all-time records for publicly traded U.S. companies.

The hurricanes slashed Exxon Mobil's U.S. production volumes by 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, down nearly 5 percent year-over-year, costing the company $45 million before taxes. The company said total daily production slipped to 2.45 million barrels of oil equivalent from 2.51 million barrels.

"Following the hurricanes, Exxon Mobil maximized gasoline production from all of our refineries which were operating in the U.S., and increased imports from overseas affiliates to meet U.S. demand," said Chairman Lee R. Raymond.

Earnings from U.S. upstream operations increased by $498 million to $1.67 billion, while U.S. downstream earnings jumped $548 million to $1.11 billion. In the U.S. and abroad, income from the company's chemicals segment declined by $537 million to $472 million, as raw materials costs squeezed margins.

The company cautioned that reduced volumes and higher costs will also hurt the fourth quarter.

Shares of Irving-based Exxon Mobil rose 56 cents, or 1 percent, to $56.76 in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock has traded in a 52-week range between $48.25 and $65.96.

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thats bull. they just raise the price to make more money not because of short supplies. the town i live in is over .40 more than any town nearby. they are being accused of gouging in the local papers

 

the gov't needs to take control of the oil industry. But why would they do that, when the guy in charge of gov't is old oil money? The whole friggin system is corrupt.

 

think about it, the government DOES have control of the oil industry.

 

Hes right, how many times have you seen one of the suits bitch about the cost of oil and gas? why has it gotten so outta hand and no one has yet to lift a finger? Weve been running on gas now for 100yrs, and the best we can do is 50-60mpg outta some lame ugly honda? 8,000lb deisel trucks are getting 25mpg and gas has far more stored energy and my truck tips the scale at just over 6,000 and I get 14? Somebody is screwing us.

 

at least I can buy shitty base gas

 

Hell yeah our shitty base gas is sitting a 2.25 for the cheap stuff!

 

Yeah my dad told me the other day that Waycross was even higher than it was in Homerville, which has never happened before.


Oh, and that's just straight up bullshit about the article. They say increased prices because of a shortage and they are making record profits? WTF is up with that. I have no problem with somebody making a profit, but not when you're bending the public over to the tune of 300% profit or whatever the Hell it is now. We need to stop this **** somehow.....

 

Hell lets boycott exxon and mobil1, if all of us truckers did it and our fellow bowtie buddies at ls1tech did, add in a little word of mouth and post this up on all our other forums we could really screw exxon over in return. Besides I like shell gas better.

 

When is the last time they did anything right? There's plenty of reasons why oil is so expensive these days. Environmentalists won't let you drill for new oil if a caribou is inconvenienced, not to mention the protests that would ensue if you tried to build nuclear plants that could supply all the electical power that we'd ever need. Try and build a refinery in this country and you'll be tied up in red tape for so long that it is no longer economically viable. Add to this the recent discovery of the modern world by China and India and you have about 10 billion more people to fight over energy supplies with.

Venture capital is pouring into the energy industry like crazy since the profits are so good. The whole sector is very cyclical. Big profits will drive big investment which will lead to overcapacity and lower prices which will drive investment back out again until everything gets old and decrepit and supply runs short and the whole thing starts over again. It has happened over and over again.

It's all very political, no doubt about that, but hey, if you think that they have an unfair advantage and can make profit at will, you can always buy their stock.