Exxon records record profits- El Gato was right!

mquast53000 · Post by **mquast53000** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 11:43 am

El Gato posted this on 9/01/2005:

El_Gato wrote:The only gouging going on is by Big Oil. The fact that they would jack the price up this much, this fast, is ridiculous and can't even remotely be explained away as "we're just covering our increased costs". Again, trust me, Big Oil will reap record profits from all this, as they always do when supply is impacted by something like Katrina.

This was in today’s (10/28/05) Billings Gazette:

ExxonMobil profit soars to $10 billion
Associated Press
DALLAS - ExxonMobil Corp. rewrote the corporate record books Thursday as the oil company's third-quarter earnings soared to almost $10 billion and it became the first public company ever with quarterly sales topping $100 billion. Anglo-Dutch competitor Royal Dutch Shell PLC wasn't far behind, posting a profit of $9 billion for the quarter.
Those results led Democrats in Congress to demand a new windfall profits tax. "Big oil behemoths are making out like bandits, while the average American family is getting killed by high gas prices, and soon-to-be record heating oil prices," Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement.
But Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said President Bush opposes such a move and is instead considering a wide range of proposals to help cushion consumers, including the creation of an emergency reserve of gasoline and other refined products.

Thursday's outsized earnings are a result of surging oil and natural gas prices that pushed pump prices to record territory after Hurricane Katrina. They come on the heels of similar eye-popping gains reported this week by BP PLC, ConocoPhillips Inc. and Marathon Oil Corp. Chevron Corp. reports its earnings today.
Some Republican members of Congress called on the industry to invest in ways that will increase production so that consumers get a break at the pumps or when they pay their heating bills. But analysts said telling the industry how to spend its money was unfair, if not futile.
"Exxon is a good corporate citizen, but it does not work for the welfare of the country," said oil analyst Fadel Gheit at Oppenheimer & Co. in New York.
Exxon Chairman and Chief Executive Lee R. Raymond did not mention the record results in the company's earnings release. Instead, he noted that the world's largest publicly traded oil company "acted responsibly in pricing at our company operated service stations, and we also encouraged our independent retailers and distributors to do the same."
Henry Hubble, Exxon's vice president of investor relations, did note on a conference call the company's record profit, which rose 75 percent in the quarter to $9.92 billion from $5.68 billion a year ago. He said the gains "reflect the strong commodity prices and our fundamental business model that is disciplined, straightforward and focused on generating value while managing risk."
The previous oil-industry earnings record was Exxon's 2004 fourth-quarter profit of $8.42 billion. Third-quarter revenue jumped to $100.72 billion from $76.38 billion in the prior-year period.
To put its performance into perspective, Exxon's revenue for the three-month period was greater than the annual gross domestic product of some of the largest oil producing nations, including the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait - even though it lost considerable production because of a string of hurricanes that battered the U.S. Gulf coast.

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.ph ... -exxon.inc

Grizlaw · Post by **Grizlaw** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 1:43 pm

The Wall Street Journal also ran stories in Wednesday's, yesterday's, and today's editions regarding record quarterly earnings that are being reported by all of the major oil companies (Texaco, Shell, BP and Chevron have all been mentioned). I can't get links to any of the stories (I have a print subscription, but the WSJ is one of those entities that makes you pay separately for the print and online versions), but the stories are pretty detailed, for anyone who's interested...

GOKATS · Post by **GOKATS** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 1:48 pm

I don't know about the rest of the state, but in Bozeman gas prices have been dropping almost daily. Regular was $2.499 yesterday and is $2.449 today. Hope this trend continues.

Post by **SonomaCat** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 1:54 pm

If only we had seen this coming about 3 years ago, we could have made some good money on oil stocks. Yet another example of how my lack of a reliable time machine has cost me money.

catbooster · Post by **catbooster** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 4:43 pm

It's not like I want to be defending Big Oil, but I read somewhere this week that the 10 billion was about a 7% profit. The article quoted says 10 billion out of over 100 billion sales, which implies closer to 10%. Either way, although 10 billion is a huge number, most businesses wouldn't consider 7-10% profit out of line, would they? Most shareholders (I guess I'm one indirectly since I suspect most mutual funds in my retirement have oil shares) would expect that kind of profit?

Platinumcat · Post by **Platinumcat** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 7:56 pm

profit margins vary in all kinds of products, especially commodities. Also, dividends for shareholders are where it's at vs profit margins when considering whether to buy or not.

Now onto the subject: I just about went through the roof when I read the article in Thursday's Chronicle. I tried to post the story but it wasn't available online. I told my wife I was getting dizzy from the spin that was put on as a part of the story.

Such a crock!!!!