Oil companies enjoy record profits
Permalink | October 28th, 2005
Pssst, we’re being robbed. Exxon yesterday posted a record quarterly earning. Their $9.92 billion dollar net profit for the 3rd quarter gave Exxon the largest quarterly earning ever in US corporate history.
Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest oil company, said yesterday that its third-quarter net income jumped 75 percent, to $9.92 billion. Its profit in the first nine months of this year - $25.42 billion - already equals its full-year earnings for 2004. This year’s sales, which topped $100 billion in the last quarter, are expected to exceed those of Wal-Mart.
Another oil giant, Royal Dutch Shell, reported a 68 percent jump in profits yesterday, to $9.03 billion. Chevron is expected to post a profit of more than $4 billion today.
This year is shaping up as an exceptionally lucrative one for the oil industry, thanks to strong global demand, tight supplies and high prices for oil and natural gas. While the idea that the Bush administration was considering imposing a windfall profits tax was knocked down yesterday by officials, longstanding resentments against Big Oil are resurfacing and could end up imposing some additional burdens on the industry.
Exxon’s chief executive remarked in a news conference held after the earnings report, “I am not embarrassed, this is no windfall.” Do we need to redirect your attention to the report that concluded oil prices would have to rise to over $95 a barrel in order for gas prices in the US to top $3 a gallon? In the past quarter oil has hovered around $60-$65 a barrel, only briefly breaking $70 after the hurricanes that ravaged the Gulf. So why the high prices?!
