Exxon shatters profit records
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Figured I'd post this, I'm sure it would have gotten here eventually....
Exxon shatters profit records
Oil giant makes corporate history by booking $11.7 billion in quarterly profit; earns $1,300 a second in 2007.
February 1 2008: 9:01 AM EST
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Exxon Mobil made history on Friday by reporting the highest quarterly and annual profits ever for a U.S. company.
Exxon (XOM, Fortune 500) shares gained nearly 2% in pre-market trading on the results, which were underpinned by soaring crude prices.
Exxon, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, said fourth-quarter net income rose 14% to $11.66 billion, or $2.13 per share. That's up from $10.25 billion, or $1.76 per share, in the year-ago period.
That tops Exxon's previous quarterly profit record of $10.7 billion, set in the fourth quarter of 2005, which also was a record for any U.S. corporation.
Exxon also set an annual profit record by earning $40.61 billion last year, or nearly $1,300 per second.
The company's full-year results exceeded its previous record of $39.5 billion in 2006.
In the fourth quarter, revenue rose 29.5% from a year ago to $116.64 billion.
Analysts were looking for the company to report quarterly profit of $10.36 billion on revenue of $114.9 billion, according to earnings tracker Thomson Financial.
Exxon's earnings are sure to draw fire from consumer rights groups, who contend the oil industry is deliberately restricting supply and profiting on the back of U.S. motorists. They have previously called for a windfall profit tax on oil firms, and have proposed breaking up the big oil companies created during the 1990s merger wave.
Exxon attributed its impressive results to strong performance across its divisions, but a large part of the surge in profit can be attributed to soaring oil prices.
Last year, crude prices skyrocketed nearly 60%. That surge helped prices break through the $100 a barrel mark for the first time ever early last month.
Natural gas prices have also increased compared to last year, albeit marginally.
But costs have also increased for the oil companies, and they haven't been able to make as much selling gasoline, which is why profits haven't risen as rapidly as crude prices.
Exxon isn't the only oil giant to report impressive earnings. No. 2 Chevron (CVX, Fortune 500) also reported a jump in quarterly profit on Friday. Conoco (COP, Fortune 500), the nation's third largest oil company, trounced profit estimates by nearly 25% when it reported last week.
Find this article at:
http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/01/news/companies/exxon_earnings/index.htm?eref=rss_topstories
Exxon shatters profit records
Oil giant makes corporate history by booking $11.7 billion in quarterly profit; earns $1,300 a second in 2007.
February 1 2008: 9:01 AM EST
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Exxon Mobil made history on Friday by reporting the highest quarterly and annual profits ever for a U.S. company.
Exxon (XOM, Fortune 500) shares gained nearly 2% in pre-market trading on the results, which were underpinned by soaring crude prices.
Exxon, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, said fourth-quarter net income rose 14% to $11.66 billion, or $2.13 per share. That's up from $10.25 billion, or $1.76 per share, in the year-ago period.
That tops Exxon's previous quarterly profit record of $10.7 billion, set in the fourth quarter of 2005, which also was a record for any U.S. corporation.
Exxon also set an annual profit record by earning $40.61 billion last year, or nearly $1,300 per second.
The company's full-year results exceeded its previous record of $39.5 billion in 2006.
In the fourth quarter, revenue rose 29.5% from a year ago to $116.64 billion.
Analysts were looking for the company to report quarterly profit of $10.36 billion on revenue of $114.9 billion, according to earnings tracker Thomson Financial.
Exxon's earnings are sure to draw fire from consumer rights groups, who contend the oil industry is deliberately restricting supply and profiting on the back of U.S. motorists. They have previously called for a windfall profit tax on oil firms, and have proposed breaking up the big oil companies created during the 1990s merger wave.
Exxon attributed its impressive results to strong performance across its divisions, but a large part of the surge in profit can be attributed to soaring oil prices.
Last year, crude prices skyrocketed nearly 60%. That surge helped prices break through the $100 a barrel mark for the first time ever early last month.
Natural gas prices have also increased compared to last year, albeit marginally.
But costs have also increased for the oil companies, and they haven't been able to make as much selling gasoline, which is why profits haven't risen as rapidly as crude prices.
Exxon isn't the only oil giant to report impressive earnings. No. 2 Chevron (CVX, Fortune 500) also reported a jump in quarterly profit on Friday. Conoco (COP, Fortune 500), the nation's third largest oil company, trounced profit estimates by nearly 25% when it reported last week.
Find this article at:
http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/01/news/companies/exxon_earnings/index.htm?eref=rss_topstories
My whole life
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
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Comments
How much did they spend on research and development?
How do thier profits relate to most insurance profits?
I'm more upset with Oil Companies for not doing more research on bio fuels and getting those to the market quicker as well as not building newer more efficient refineries with more environmental protections but Environmental groups are owed plenty of the blame for that because they do all they can to block progress even in the face of better efficiency and refining of cheaper heavy crude.
USLD came out in the past year, once on road effiencent diesels come on the market in the US and people start using it gasoline prices will go down a bit and so will diesel after they pay for all the new infrastructure. There is far too high a demand for gasoline right now. It's our own fault.
The biggest problem is the high cost of sweet light crude the decades of wasted time not researching biofuels and not enough refineries in the US not to mention thier ancient age and lack of interest in reinvestment mainly due to the ridiculous governmental hoops you have to jump through to get things done.
it's funny when we talk about how this "war" benefits the oil companies - people always say it doesn't ... well, if this ain't proof - nothing is gonna convince peeps that this "war" was an imperialistic venture ...
send you troops to die, kill innocent civilians including children - all so your oil companies and defense contractors can make record profits ... all the while - your debt as a citizen of your country continues to mount ...
They aren't producing enough gasoline for the market, but currently the business environment makes it better to deal with outdated horrible facilities rather than build newer better cleaner safer facilities. Unless there is a reason to spend money, Oil Companies... don't do it except for finding new oil deposits. Currently they have no reason to. They are spending billions in research finding new oil deposits but there aren't enough refineries or infrastructure resources to meet the demand adequately. That's why it's so expensive.
That is what always bugs me when people talk these "record profits" in that they don't talk about how much that number relates to the amount of money they spent. I mean for a super exaggerated example if your company only costs $1000 a year to run 11 billion in profit is amazing. But if your company costs 500 billion to run an 11 billion dollar profit really isn't that good. I mean if you read the article it says that that profit was made on 116 billion in revenue. That is only like a 9% profit. I am sure that there are other industries where they make way more than a 9% profit.
well said and very true. exxon makes so much money based on sheer volume of sales. their profits margins are no where near the top. they just happen to sell something that almost everyone in the world needs.
by this i'm sure you are blame them for being a money hungry corporate giant that steals from the little guy.
do you drive a car?
Yeah it's about 8.5% or that's what they said in the MSNBC article.
I bet a few companies in northern New Jersey who make drugs did slightly better.... hell for that matter, I wonder what Vitamin Water did last year.
don't make or even plant the assumption that they are breaking the bank on R & D unless you can prove it.
find the figures on R & D and post em if your going to try to make a case for "poor, suffering FUCKTILLIONARES!!"
we haven't seen a new refinery built in 30 years. That should be a hint.
they won't come to their own defense so why should you?
Exxon is a tremendously HUGE company they employ a tremendously Huge amount of people. I don't have the internal R&D numbers but I do know they have a research drill ship or two that cost about $500,000 dollars per day to operate and they do that pretty much non stop when and where they can.
They also are quite a bit of the money behind deep water Remote Operated Vehicle research so they don't have to put divers in harms way. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that's a Fuckload of money in research since they are trying to find reliable non war torn supply sources not controlled by opec as fast as they can.
Everyone at the top of Every large company and all board members make shit tons of money, they are also the assholes responsible for making the ridiculous corporate decisions that get all those people like us common folks laid off. Does it bother me that the guy at the top makes a ridiculous amount more than the majority of the people who do the most work? Yeah, but I can't do much about that at all.
We won't see a new refinery built because no one wants a new refinery built near where they live.
11/18/97 Oakland
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10/31/99 Bridge School
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Man, you'd think that somewhere in the rust belt, say Flint, Michigan, they'd jump at the chance to build a refinery in their backyards, even to the detriment of their own health. Where have the new refineries been proposed to be built?
We're the chumps.
Would you lower the price of your good if sales at high prices were through the roof? Out of the goodness of your heart? Exxon owes us nothing in terms of cheap gas. We owe it to ourselves. Now everyone get a bike and a bus pass. Don't ask what your community can do for you, ask what you can do for your community--make a sacrifice. If you use less gas, the price won't matter as much.
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12227 these explain it a bit better.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4296812.stm
Essentially like all companies Oil Companies are cheap after all they are run by accountants right?
Refining dosen't make a whole heap of money... exploration does.... then add in the frustration of permits, zoning, environmental regulations bad PR etc.... you wind up with people going... ok screw it. We know we're produciong a hell of a lot less than we should but we're not going to get a huge return on the refinery we will with exploration... that leads to some of the horrible issues like the blow down drum explosion at BP but again, when you mainly look to accountants and not engineers these kinds of things happen then you tie in the.... well I like driving but I don't really want to have a big dangerous refinery near me.....even if it is more efficent than the last one built 30 years ago.
It's got to be easy to get the oil in and the product out though as well so location is kind of important as well as the infrastructure.
Basically what this means is the same thing it meant for US manufacturing. Taxes/penalties cost too much to build new refineries here with not much return. Farm it out to India/China Azerbajan other large oil producing countries etc....or just raise the price because there is no margin for error. Companies keep themselves as thin as possible it's just the nature of business.
Just to follow up on my previous post one of the biggest banks in Canada posted a record profit last year, check out this link:
http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2007/11/30/royalfourth.html
Except their profit was 1.32 billion on about 5.6 billion in revenue. Their profit percentage was closer to 18percent, about double what exxon made. So why do people only complain about the oil company profits? If you had a choice to spend about about 4 billion and make 1 billion dollars profit or spend about 100 billion and make 10 billion profit which would you choose?
As far as the top executives making tons of cash. It doesn't really bother me that much. I mean if you want the highly skilled people you have to pay for them. If you want whoever jackass you can get try cutting their salaries.
I used to bitch about oil companies recording record profits quarter after quarter. But, like mentioned already, I drive a car. So instead I got in on the profits by putting some oil stocks in my portfolio.
that's the thing, if they make a bad decision, they can screw up the lives of thousands.... you kind of want to make sure you get the best... and the best is usually expensive.
the problem is HOW they are making this profit ... it's through record high oil prices ... why are oil prices at a record high? ... cuz of instability throughout the world ... why is there instability? ... cuz america has gone to war in that region and are threatening another country ... why are they going to war in the middle east? ... so that they can destabilize the region? ... why do they want to do that? ... so, that companies like exxon can make record profits ...
for the least they could possibly do
your attitude is awesome!! you better figure out a way to sell your pictures to oil companies or send them overseas...no one is gonna buy crappy pictures they could edit themselves in an economy that is broken
are you kidding?
I'm not kidding about my Exxon stock going up.
I am kidding with the "suck on that" comment.
for the least they could possibly do
This is where the oil companies have most of us by the balls. Suburban sprawl has flung many consumers miles away from their places of business. Many urban areas STILL don't have great public transportation. I live in a suburb outside of San Antonio -- a city of a million people. There is no possible way for me to get to work except to drive.
The city of San Antonio has a public bus system ... which doesn't reach the suburbs. I wouldn't be surprised if other cities of similar size were the same way.
I guess I could move closer to my place of business ... but how the hell am I supposed to sell my house in this market?
for the least they could possibly do
You just crossed into my professional field.
Sprawl is a function of two things. First and foremost, it's a function of the market. White flight, desire for big yards, perceptions of bad schools, the relative ease in the 1950s to get anywhere by car without parking and traffic problems (a thing of the past now), etc. I hear you on the cost of housing comment. Lending practices are also pro-sprawl, unwittingly. They do not take into consideration the reduced travel expense of living in the City--If a 2-car family can be a one car family and drive a quarter of the miles, there are a lot of savings there, but from what I am told, that is not recognized at the banks. The second thing is that federal government practices have a very sprawl inducing history. The homeownership programs after WWII were very suburban-oriented and generally were anti multi-family house. Tack on the immediate love affair with the automobile and the highways that the government funded, ignoring transit, and you have a recipe for sprawl. (I toook some of this, and recommend, "Inside Game, Outside Game" by David Rusk).
And the problem with Transit now is that the development is so spread out that it just cannot efficiently cover the suburbs. My City, Minneapolis, has bus service to the suburbs, but it gets inefficant in a hurry.
Nevertheless, we continue to make choices. Developers continue to develop strip development that is conducive to the car. State DOTs (at least one in another state I used to work in) continue to have anti-sidewalk rules because we like low taxes. The market (i.e. the choices we continue to make to this day) continues to do things that lead to oil dependancy, and the government continues only to make marginal improvements (when not screwing it up, particularly at the federal level). All you and I can do is examine our own behaviors and do our best minimize our dependance. Every time I see a Ford Expedition owner whine about the price of gas, I have to try had to contain my laughter--but our behavior (and I am guilty of some bad convenience-driven behavior myself) is as important as our chosen vehicle.
Edit: Misread your housing comment. You were talking about selling your house. I was thinking about the cost difference in the City vs. the suburbs. Well my point stands about the lending practices. As for selling your house, now's probably not a great time, but you did make a choice to live there. Do the oil companies exploit that? Sure. But most companies can be counted on to exploit what they can to make money.
More often than not, I agree with your politics more than Jlew's, but this smart-ass comment is in response to a smarmy, yet totally relevant question of "do you drive a car?" At the risk of putting words in his mouth...think of your own behavior when you are unhappy about gas prices and Exxon profits. It's not truely whether you drive, but what kind of car, do you drive two blocks to visit your buddy, do you know the little rules of gas saving (i.e. trip-chaining), do you forgo some of that convenience in order to save on gas.
Perhaps it is YOUR attitude that is awsome.
And don't forget that the whole record profit thing is just a hoax. I could boast I had record income this past year as well. With inflation every year should be a record year for profit and income for every company and individual. If not you have serious problems.
when it hits you, you feel to pain.
So brutalize me with music.”
~ Bob Marley
Hopefully it leads to this.
Interesting point. A few years ago, as gas prices went up and people got upset, I think that they were actually, adjusted for inflation, the lowest since the early 1980s. I don't think that's the case anymore.
But yeah, any discussion of historic profit using nominal (as opposed to real) dollars is fairly meaningless.
uhh ... did you read the article? ... it says profits are due to oil prices and that gasoline was not a huge factor ...
again - i don't care how much they make - they could make trillions ... i just don't like the WAY they made it ... through fraud wars ...
But doesn't it stand to reason that in these areas are unstable the costs to operate them are going to go up? I mean if you are running oil in a country that could blow up at any minute it seems pretty reasonable that it is going to cost more to get people to work there, it is going to cost more to get equipment delivered there, it is going to cost more to insure your holdings and so on.