money.cnn


11.7 Billion dollars in profit this year alone...

That' s $1,300 a second.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Exxon Mobil made history on Friday by reporting the highest quarterly and annual profits ever for a U.S. company, boosted in large part 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. The company earned $10.25 billion, or $1.76 per share, in the year-ago period.

The profit topped Exxon' s previous quarterly record of $10.7 billion, set in the fourth quarter of 2005, which also was an all-time high for a U.S. corporation.

" Exxon can put out some amazing numbers and this is one of those cases," said Jason Gammel, senior analyst at Macquarie Securities in New York.

Exxon also set an annual profit record by earning $40.61 billion last year - or nearly $1,300 per second in 2007. That exceeded its previous record of $39.5 billion in 2006.

In the fourth quarter, the company said 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.

Despite topping Wall Street' s estimates, Exxon (XOM, Fortune 500) shares slipped in afternoon trading.

The company reported strong results in its worldwide exploration and production, or " upstream," business. Profit rose 32% to $8.2 billion during the quarter, offsetting some weakness earlier in the year.

Income in Exxon' s refining, or " downstream," business rose 15.7% during the quarter to $2.27 billion.

Exxon attributed its impressive results to strong performance across its divisions, but a large part of the profit surge was underpinned by climbing oil prices.

Crude prices skyrocketed nearly 60% last year. The surge helped prices break through the $100 a barrel mark for the first time ever early last month. Since crossing that milestone, prices have eased to around $90 a barrel.

Natural gas prices also jumped last year, albeit marginally. But costs have also increased for the oil companies, which is why profits haven' t risen as rapidly as crude prices.

Big oil companies that both pump oil and refine crude into gasoline have to spend more for crude but are unable to pass on all the extra cost to consumers, which eats in to gasoline profit margins.

The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline hit an all-time high of $3.23 in May, according to the motorist organization AAA. The high prices were blamed on strong demand and a series of accidents that shut down refineries in the U.S. But slack demand for gasoline in the latter half of last year kept gas prices from rising as dramatically as crude prices.

Exxon' s record results, which coincide with smaller rival Chevron' s (CVX, Fortune 500) profit jump, drew some fire from both government officials and consumer rights groups, who have argued previously that the the oil industry is deliberately restricting supply and profiting on the back of U.S. motorists.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. took a swipe at the two firms, calling on fellow lawmakers to break the country' s dependence on foreign oil and rollback unnecessary tax incentives for oil companies.

Judy Dugan, research director of The Foundation for Taxpayer an

Its not just the US that oil companies are making big profits. Shell just posted the largest corporate profit in UK history and we pay the equivalent of about $9 a gallon for petrol at the pumps (although this pinko government takes the bulk of that).

The oil companies are really pissing me off lately. We keep hearing about how the oil crisis is the cause of the inflated prices but if it were truly the case they wouldn' t be making these huge profits. The oil companies know they have us by the balls and they are just jacking the prices up for the hell of it. Oil crisis my ass... there' s more oil in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska than there is in the Middle East and we haven' t even tapped it yet.

Supply and demand.

They simply cannot drill enough oil fast enough. The fact is we' re running out. Which is making it very difficult to drill deeper. Meanwhile, the demand keeps rising. If the price of gas stayed locked we would frequently run out. Imagine going to the pump only to find out that they' re waiting for the Shell truck to refill their reserves.

We should stop selling oil to China. Better yet impose a 300% tax on oil sent to China and use that money to subsidize oil to the rest of the world. Fuck ' em.

In 50 odd years there won' t be enough oil to drill at all. That' s when we' re truely going to be fucked. Not only will we lose a great source of energy but our governments will lose a huge source of income. Oil is taxed like crazy.

Yay, forced smaller governments. FUCK FICA. Stop giving my money to old people.

ORIGINAL: Ornodeal

Its not just the US that oil companies are making big profits. Shell just posted the largest corporate profit in UK history and we pay the equivalent of about $9 a gallon for petrol at the pumps (although this pinko government takes the bulk of that).

Ornodeal the wankers that are in power take something like 65p a litre, plus they put in expense claims for their petrol the Honest British tax payer when paying for petrol ends up paying £2+ a litre if you think of it in real terms. Petrol companies need to start showing the consumer some respect and drop the price of petrol. the rat bastards