Exxon Skimps On Oil Production To Boost Profits

Exxon Skimps On Oil Production To Boost Profits

BusinessWeek Via MSN   |   March 21, 2008 11:42 AM


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Reports of slackening demand sent oil down another 2.5% on Thursday to $101.84 per barrel. Crude prices have declined 7.6% since the beginning of the week. Not long ago, that would have been an astonishing plunge that shook the trading establishment. These days? Nah, that's just the ho-hum volatility in the oil market. But how is it that crude can still trade above $100 a barrel, three times what it sold for at the start of the decade, despite a very wobbly economy?

If you want to understand that, it helps to listen in to ExxonMobil's (XOM, news, msgs) presentation to analysts in New York City in early March. Halfway through the three-hour meeting, Exxon management flashed a chart that showed the company's worldwide oil production staying flat through 2012.

Ponder that for a minute. Exxon is the largest publicly traded company in the energy business. In fact, it's the most profitable company in the history of capitalism, earning a record $40.6 billion last year on sales of $404 billion. Yet even with crude oil prices near all-time highs, Exxon isn't planning on producing any more oil four years from now than it did last year.

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Since when is it a crime to be screwed by any American Company?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 12:10 PM on 03/24/2008

Oil profit is ALL THAT MATTERS. "The Decider" sent US troops to die for Oil profits and fill his own pockets. The Criminal Cheney lied to the Nation to fill his own pockets.

Exxon will not be stopped - really nothing anyone can do - they own the Government. Big trouble ahead. Watch as America tumbles into a facist dictatorship- its peopel enslaved to corprations.

It was nice while it lasted, but the American dream will soon turn into the American nightmare. But so long as the Oil rich have their places in Dubai, what does it matter ?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 12:03 AM on 03/24/2008

If the behavior of an individual was detrimental to the national interest that individual
would be ridiculed for being unpatriotic or maybe even treasonous. How is it that
corporations can act in a way that is detrimental to our national interest but nothing is said? We as citizens give our children's lives and our taxes to further our national goals,
but the only thing corporations appear to be doing is taking our money, killing our children
and telling us all to go to hell. Where the hell are our discounts and other bennies that most corporations give their best customers? We need to see some corporate and shareholder sacrifice, after all, they are benefiting, not us. We are just getting screwed.
God bless the Corporate slave society and the t?rds who support it. Semper Fi

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 05:09 PM on 03/23/2008

Exxon executives: the real rulers of America!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:02 AM on 03/23/2008

BOYCOTT ALL EXXON MOBIL PRODUCTS


take back America one oil company at a time

The New Boston Tea Party

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:45 AM on 03/23/2008

What a shock!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:32 PM on 03/22/2008

Ah, the satisfaction from profit in market capitalism perversion.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 08:29 PM on 03/22/2008

Between 2004 and 2008 the income of our congressmen/women went up 84%. Do you believe they would reign in the hedge funds and the oil future's market with that kind of return? Did you believe
they are working for you? And we are about to fall for it again for we let the good candidate who
suggested change, get away. So you are the blame!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 06:42 PM on 03/22/2008

Then: "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?"

Now: "Will you be better off four years from now than you are today?"

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 06:34 PM on 03/22/2008

At least 90% of us would say "no."

At least 99% of us SHOULD say "no."

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:17 PM on 03/22/2008

BIG OIL and Cheney faked the biggest RIP-OFF ever of middle-income Americans.
Bush-Cheney & Company faked the Iraq FOR-PROFIT INVASION.

It's all about THE MONEY they can vacuum clean from USTreasury's middle-income Americans' tax money to hand over to their NANNY STATE FOR THE RICH & CORPORATE WELFARE QUEENS.

Enjoy paying, Americans!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 06:33 PM on 03/22/2008

I haven't used an Exxon gas station since the Valdez spill (which I hear they still haven't paid for). An easy boycott.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 05:50 PM on 03/22/2008

It doesn't mean squat to boycott Exxon unless its's on a large scale and that can't happen because there's only so much to go around .If everybody boycotts Exxon and goes to a competitor ,that competitor will end up short on supply and purchase what's needed from whoever has inventory,yeah,you guessed it,Exxon.All that would happen is an Exxon franchise in your area would go out of business and possibly you'd have one less place to purchase your gasoline,but Exxon wouldn't lose a cent.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:59 PM on 03/22/2008

I've already explained to people wanting to boycott some oil company that they don't know what they're talking about.

The only way to make an impact is to use less.

Then, the price will be raised to keep sales at the same level, and you are right back where you started.

The only way is to get off the grid as much as possible.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 01:55 PM on 03/23/2008

Me neither. And I'm hardly surprised. Bu$hco has given 'em free license to be thieves.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 06:08 PM on 03/22/2008

do you think the bush suckers would do anything about it--they are the worse crooks in the history of our country-

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 05:50 PM on 03/22/2008

Actually they're the best.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:02 PM on 03/22/2008

Amen.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 01:56 PM on 03/23/2008

Oh come on. If Exxon can maintain the same level of production despite Hugo Chavez backing out of all Venezuela's oil deals, they ARE increasing production from other sources.

The unasked and unanswered question is why we aren't producing oil from our own oil shale in Montana? They can produce it and make a profit on it at $50 per barrel. We should be ramping that up, yesterday. It's exactly the threat we need to keep OPEC in line.

Of course the libs are still in hysterics over Gore's global warming snake oil. But this is a national security issue now. Every presidential candidate in both parties has said we need more energy independence. Well, what are we waiting for?????

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 05:27 PM on 03/22/2008

Wow, what a great tactic: just keep reposting your earlier indefensible nonsense, so that it shows as a new comment. Hey folks, read down further for the original posting of the above and responses to it, and to the right-wing sources its author cites as evidence for global cooling.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:06 PM on 03/22/2008

My apology for the "tactic" post. For a while the site was showing two identical entries for the original Momondude post, one a ways above this one. Apparently that has been corrected.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:19 PM on 03/22/2008

Let us keep our oil as a last resort. We'll need it.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 07:36 PM on 03/22/2008

It doesn't do us any good if we can't produce oil from it. The point is that as of today we couldn't squeeze 1/1000th of our daily oil use from our own deposits because they haven't been developed.

We need them online so that we can access them if necessary, and to use as a threat to break the stranglehold OPEC has on us.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 07:45 PM on 03/22/2008

Yeah, and to hell with the environment, I guess. I suspect increased strip mining of the west for coal is part of the answer, too, eh? Oh, and, naturally we're to believe that global warming is a myth. My, it's good to hear from such an enlightened source.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 05:37 PM on 03/22/2008

You don't bother to look at much of the data, do you?

http://www.dailytech.com/Temperature+Monitors+Report+Worldwide+Global+Cooling/article10866.htm

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23411799-7583,00.html

None of the models showing catastrophic warming take into account the most recent data. Those scientists that have now made their careers on hyping global warming haven't decided how to break the news to people yet.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 05:44 PM on 03/22/2008

Not data from Rupert Murdoch outlets like The Australian or Fox News! Nor from lightweight "science" blogs. The scientists whom you would consider "proponents" of global warming had made their careers long before the issue was deemed of interest by the corporate media or the general public. Mostly it's a small bunch of corporate lackey scientists who dispute the phenomenon of climate change. Global warming is NOT something that just appeared out of the woodwork. We learned about its potential back in the 70s in junior college. Enjoy living in what's left of your dream world. There are plenty of right-wing sources out there to give you comfort and aid you in your delusion.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 07:41 PM on 03/22/2008

Data and science are two different things. The global warming models actually predict a slowdown, or possibly a shutdown of the Atlantic Conveyor, which brings heat to northern areas from the tropics. The result would be extremely cold winters in the north, and warming and desertification nearer the tropics. Draught has been the norm in the southern US over the past few years, We will see.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 06:18 PM on 03/22/2008

And, Ladies and Gentlemen, don't forget to vote McCain in November. I am sure George and Dick will sit him down and explain what Jesus knows about the oil companies and Exxon can count on business as usual with the GOP in charge for four more years.....wtih not an energy policy in sight.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 05:14 PM on 03/22/2008

Never before to this degree, but it is a business strategy that has worked for 30 yrs. The gov't. should take over all of the wells that have gone fallow for the last 3 decades and start a federal energy dep't. with it. Europeans pay a lot for gas but the money goes for health care, pensions and training. Here, the money goes for creation postal stops in the Caymans. I predict that in Oct.-Nov. this year, there will be an announcement of a shortage of heating oil. Prices are shooting up with such peculiar regularity that they aren't even pretending that there is a shortage. Gas and diesel go up in March-April, heating oil goes up in Sept. and the prices don't come down. Why do people act amazed and say that the"Oil Co.'s" should find alternative energy?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 04:33 PM on 03/22/2008

Shareholders own the energy companies. How many of them are blasting away at the obscene profits on Huffpost, writing fiery letters to editors, converging on the halls of congress demanding some help in this crisis? These armies of shareholders are not hurting at the pump. They simply turn around their profits to pay for any increases. No pain, all gain. It's true that the CEOs rake in humongous salaries and perks, but it's the masses of stockholders who remain mute in this ongoing energy crisis.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 04:17 PM on 03/22/2008



Tesla also investigated harvesting energy that is present throughout space. He believed that it was just merely a question of time when men will succeed in attaching their machinery to the very wheelwork of nature, stating:

" Ere many generations pass, our machinery will be driven by a power obtainable at any point of the universe. "

""Experiments With Alternate Currents Of High Potential And High Frequency" (February 1892)

When Tesla died his research papers were confiscated by the FBI, I understand; so the corporates and the government have been smothering this knowledge for over fifty years.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 04:06 PM on 03/22/2008

But but but....

It's because we need more refineries right? Oh wait....

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 03:37 PM on 03/22/2008

Breaking News! Water is wet!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 03:33 PM on 03/22/2008

Times up.

The energy party is over.

Either the US will shift to renewables and move our economy to it or our 'empire' will fail just like England's did.

I'm pretty sure the US can't make the transition. The political will is not there and the stakeholders who have all their fingers in the oil pie have no reason to do so either.

Well, it was nice while it lasted, huh?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 02:38 PM on 03/22/2008

I am just so surprised at this story! Is this news to anyone? Hasn't this been going on since the oil men took over Washington? How else can you go from $1.40 a gallong to $3.50 a gallon and still record record profits. I think it's called gouging the American public. We can only hope the voters have started to notice how much the Republican party "cares" about them.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 02:10 PM on 03/22/2008

Exactly. They've manufactured a crisis and hopped up profits, having used said manufactured crisis to pad profits.

Why is this so hard to understand. Let's put aside the manufactured aspect of the crisis and say that theraw material has jumped 200% but the bump the price up 300%. They've made a huge excess profit in addition to whatever the profit margin used to be. It's all a scam.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 06:12 PM on 03/22/2008

What else would we expect from the world's most evil group of people? We should not expect any less evil from Bush's cronies. During Bush's reign of the US, American people have been robbed, our national treasures looted, and our constitution raped. So, this news is not a news but an expected consequence of a reckless and treasonous government.

This should be added to the long list of indictments against George W. Bush et al.

We also have the GM, Ford, Chrysler, and Toyota to thank to. They are the co-conspirators who help the oil cartel in their quest for more money - our money. Our corrupt government (congress) get money (through lobby system) from super-ugly-gas-guzzling vehicle (SUVs) manufacturers to promote the sales of these environmental-terrorizing vehicles as they are lucrative. It's a win-win situation for both the oil cartels like ExxonMobil, who get the boost of sales and the ability to manipulate the market and for automakers, who get the cash to burn themselves with in hell. The losers: those who buy and drive these super-ugly vehicles and those of us who share the same polluted air!

Send a message to ExxonMobil: minimize your gas consumption and boot out any politicians that smell like oil (Bush and Cheney and Rice are soaked in oil). By the way, Condi Rice was born white until Chevron Texaco pump oil into her blood.

IMPEACHMENT MUST BE PUT BACK ON THE TABLE!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 02:07 PM on 03/22/2008

Hello Misery! You need company?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 02:13 PM on 03/22/2008

For those of you in Kansas and elsewhere who voted for Little George, I have a financial term for you: transfer of wealth.

It's how poor people stay poor and rich people get richer. Every time you fill up, you're paying dividends to XOM shareholders and bonuses to executives. It's why the government won't raise fuel efficiency standards. It's why we fight wars in places like Iraq. It's why there's no Manhattan Project for alternative energy. It's why George Bush ran for office in the first place.

Poor folks, you're a major player in the world financial markets. And you thought you didn't have any wealth to transfer.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 01:48 PM on 03/22/2008

I am the most thankful guy at the pumps. Especially when I have to wait in line for gas. To all those loyal people who have helped me gain the 24% off the profits for the last couple years, I say a heart felt thank you.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 02:30 PM on 03/22/2008

Little George is only the last in a line of monsters who brought us to our current situation. What about all the folks, including a lot of so-called liberal Democrats, who did their part by voting in Reagan as California Governor in 1966, Nixon as president, twice, Reagan, twice, Bush 1, and Slick Willie, who was nothing more than a Republican calling himself a Democrat. People get the government they deserve. If they don't stop identifying with their bosses and don't drop the delusion that they are part of the "investment class", working folks -- and that includes you yuppie pretenders to wealth -- are going to reap a lot more pain, real pain, before the truly wealthy are through with you. Your damned choice ...

Forget about Obama's babble over "hope" and "change". He (like his mirror Hilary) wants to increase the military, and "fix" Social Security, which aint broken, by looking at raising the retirement age, or cutting benefits. If you want some change, vote for someone progressive instead of bleating about how third party candidates never win here ... they don't because those who agree with them won't vote for them. What a bunch of brainwashed automatons.

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