ExxonMobil Posts Biggest Quarterly US Profit In History

HOUSTON - Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil company, says it shattered its own record for the biggest profit from operations by a U.S. corporation, earning $14.83 billion in the third quarter. bolstered

Bolstered by this summer's record crude prices, the Irving, Texas-based company said Thursday that net income jumped nearly 58 percent, or $2.86 a share in the July-September. That compares with $9.41 billion, or $1.70 a share, a year ago.

The previous record for U.S. corporate profit was set earlier this year, when Exxon Mobil earned $11.68 billion in the second quarter.

Revenue rose 35 percent to $137.7 billion.

On average, analysts expected the company to earn $2.39 per share in the latest quarter on revenue of $131.4 billion.

Comments

[Chavista]

08:27 PM on 11/21/2008

The oil companies need fossil fuel burning cars. Any bail out of the automakers in the face of such obscene profits for the oil companies is absurd. Let the oil companies spend their profits to bailout or buy the automakers if they want to keep cars on the road that need their product. Any politician that is wanting to bail out the automakers is either ignorant or corrupt.

[rosiebond007]

10:57 AM on 10/31/2008

SHARE THE WEALTH EXXON

[notconfindtweenhatnboots]

10:44 AM on 10/31/2008

7:24AM from Hanoverton, OH, in his stump speech, John McCain was speaking about off-shore drilling and mining. He stated aloud "and we will NOT share the wealth".

Sounds like he and his cronies must have stock in Exxon too.

[sonofsamphm1c]

11:27 AM on 10/31/2008

I can assure McCain, if Americans won't pay the highest price for a barrel of offshore oil, we'll sail it to the country that will.

[the gentleman]

07:34 AM on 10/31/2008

hey pinky bear Exxon actually DOES pay taxes.

[polson520]

12:05 PM on 10/31/2008

And under the McCain tax plan, they would have paid $1.4 billion less in this past quarter alone.

So how are we going to make up for that shortfall in revenue?

[BilCon]

01:14 PM on 10/31/2008

I am sure the other $32 Billion they paid to Uncle Sam would help.

[PinkyBear]

05:46 AM on 10/31/2008

Tax them!

[ElectricEye]

03:49 AM on 10/31/2008

The day won't come soon enough when Exxon has declared their last ill-gotten, blood-soaked dollar. Everyone at Exxon VP level and above is a traitor and a criminal. Heads need to roll.

[dandypuddin]

03:25 AM on 10/31/2008

I agree! Let's nationalize the oil companies like we are doing in Iraq. Exxon is obscene. And all these phony oil co. commercials lately acting like they care about global warming and conservation are obscenely manipulative of the uninformed populace. Who do they think they are fooling? Tax 'em and wipe out the bailout deficit we just rang up.

[sonofsamphm1c]

07:36 AM on 10/31/2008

Long ago they nationalized their oil companies. Iraq was like an antique museum for old oil equipment. Right now they are in the process of privatizing their oil industry. They will make contracts with private oil companies to come in and modernize their fields.

Would they do that if we didn't have guns aimed at them? Probably not.

Does ExxonMobil care about global warming? Not willingly. They did sponsor a scientific research project at Stanford that recently made a significant improvement in battery technology for electric cars.

Since the Valdez they have a pretty much spotless record on product transportation. There have been a lot of oil spills since the Valdez. Do you know the names of those ships or those companies? The people who won't buy ExxonMobil could easily be buying gas from more reckless and polluting oil companies.

[DuganS1]

10:40 AM on 10/31/2008

Do you really think nationalizing the oil industry would be a good thing? Look at how the oil industry in Iran and Venezuela has fallen to ruin after nationalization. Their govt simply doesn't reinvest, or know how to reinvest, in the business. Their production is down and their equipment and facilities are falling apart. Who would you rather have running oil companies? People in the oil business or government workers that know little to nothing about the oil business, and who want to give the profits to the govt rather than reinvest in the business. Don't forget that when production goes down there is less supply and thus higher prices.

[sonofsamphm1c]

11:39 AM on 10/31/2008

There are state-run oil companies that can compete fairly well with any private-sector oil company on technology and expertise.

Venezuela is doing much better than you realize. They fired a whole bunch of oil executives, so it stands to reason they would lag for a few years.

[Beachchick]

12:49 PM on 10/31/2008

Okay, fair enough. Tax the hell out of them.

[mamacat]

03:00 AM on 10/31/2008

Obscenity, thy name is Exxon.

[Ping]

03:07 AM on 10/31/2008

Remember the Valdez. Punish Exxon.

[wm1066]

01:26 PM on 10/31/2008

I would like to know if Ted Stevens was running interferance for the oil company and that is why they haven't paid anything to the people of Alaska.

[PT6]

02:39 AM on 10/31/2008

It is TIME to Nationalize the OIL Companies to rebuild America!

We have already done that with Banks!

EXXON, with the largest profits in the WORLD's History, alone has made $600+ Billion in profits over the last 8 years! Use their Profits to give Share Holders $.50 on the dollar!

Clean them up and put them on a "GREEN TRACK" and then take them Private in two YEARS!

Combined the Oil Companies have well over a Trillion Dollars in profit that can be used to make AMERICA completely "GREEN"!

[TAIsabel]

12:28 AM on 10/31/2008

Well, we can all wait for some of this to trickle down, right? I am sure that they are very anxious to help out some of those laid-off workers and those sleeping in their cars with those nice UNTAXED profits.

[mjt218]

09:30 PM on 10/31/2008

Just looking up job openings on Exxon's website or just on Monster. I challenge you to find a sector that is hiring more than oil e&p and service companies right now. Exxon's profits aren't going to help a worker in Detroit. They'll help a worker in Detroit who's willing to make the sacrifice to relocate to Houston for a job.

[Beachchick]

12:12 AM on 10/31/2008

Since we are nationalizing troubled insurance companies and banks, why not add Exxon Mobile to the list to help ease the burden of the massive debt. Exxon benefits from our tax funded military and tax funded private military contracts that protect pipelines and shipping channels so obscene oil profits flow freely into the pockets of corrupt CEOs while most Americans wonder how they can afford to heat their homes this winter. Why are we subsidizing them? Nationalize Exxon and fund research, health care, and education.

[mjt218]

09:32 PM on 10/31/2008

Buying Exxon would cost us way more than any of the insurance companies or banks. Exxon probably has very little debt and probably a few $10's of billions of cash on hand. They're not exactly selling at a bargain price like AIG.

[TAIsabel]

12:01 AM on 10/31/2008

Sometimes I feel that I am swimming in S--T! It is an ongoing nightmare from which we cannot seem to have America wake up from. The fact that we are even having this close of an election given this outrageous financial hell, flithy Republican campaign and total meltdown, is truly scary.

If the Republicans get in this time, I am out of here and, as far as I am concerned, politics will cease to exist for me. I will go live in the farthest region of the earth I can find!

[sonofsamphm1c]

12:51 AM on 10/31/2008

About the last thing McBush needed to today was an announcement that a corporation to which he intends to give a major tax cut just made the highest corporate profit in history.

Lol. I think he would have preferred this story be delayed until after next Tuesday.

[MarkInEugene]

11:44 PM on 10/30/2008

Of course it's the largest profit made in US History. Dick Chenney set our energy policy with oil exec's 8 years ago in private meetings inside the VP office. The minutes of these meetings still have not been made public, despite numerous requests.

The Administration has done everything possible to keep the American economy and consumer dependent on oil! So ExxonMobile has taken every single penny they can get their hands on.

As long as we pander to big Oil our skies will be grey, the middle east will have turmoil, and American's will be at the mercy of gas price gouging. I've been saying this for nearly 40 years!

[LeRoyHolt]

07:45 AM on 10/31/2008

I believe the minutes were burned up in an office fire ..

Dick Cheney's closet in the Executive building... he made sure there wasn't going to be a Nixon moment

[Deus Angelus]

11:39 PM on 10/30/2008

Wow, and John McCain wants to give them tax cuts. With taxes low already, have they reinvested in America? Big Oil could just as easily help Detroit, after all, it's Detroit that gave Big Oil it's billions.

If i were CEO of Exxon, I'd be looking for a way to convert my oil company into a hydrogen company; the potential is there for hydrogen to become a trillion dollar industry.

[mjt218]

09:35 PM on 10/31/2008

Exxon doesn't waste money. They have a view on investments that long outlasts the careers of most politicians. Interesting to note that Exxon is one of the only majors not heavily investing in Shale Oil or Oil Sands. They stick to what they know and do best, and I don't think that will be hydrogen any time soon.

[georgiaR]

10:49 PM on 10/30/2008

Maybe we need to ask Sarah Palin how she got the oil companies in Alaska to give back some of their profits to the people. She seems smarter then those folks in Washington