Exxon Mobil Corp.'s second-quarter profit jumped 41% on high oil prices and improved refining and marketing results.
Exxon, the world's largest publicly traded oil company by market value, joined rivals ConocoPhillips, BP PLC and Royal Dutch Shell on reporting skyrocketing profits that echoed the record earnings oil companies posted before the financial collapse in 2008, when oil traded above $147 a barrel.
But the Texas oil giant's earnings fell short of its all-time record of $14.83 billion posted in the third quarter of 2008, mainly because natural gas prices—a growing part of Exxon's production—remain low in the wake of the recession.
Exxon on Thursday reported a profit of $10.68 billion, or $2.18 a share, up from $7.56 billion, or $1.61 a share, a year earlier. Revenue climbed 33.5% to $125.4 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters most recently forecast earnings of $2.33 on revenue of $121.39 billion.
Exxon's second-quarter production increased 10% to 4.4 million barrels of oil equivalent from the same quarter a year earlier, boosted by its $25-billion takeover of natural-gas producer XTO Energy Inc. last year. Excluding the impacts of lower entitlement volumes, OPEC quota effects and divestment, production was up 12% the company said.
TVNL Comment: Bloomberg headlined this story : Exxon Misses Estimates on Refining Products. So, let's keep giving subsidies and tax breaks to this poor, suffering company, and reduce benefits for Medicare and Medicaid recipients.