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ExxonMobil profits gush above 9 bln dlrs
AFP
NEW YORK
Petroleumworld.com 04 27 07ExxonMobil, the world's biggest energy company, said Thursday its latest quarterly profits gushed to 9.28 billion dollars as refining and marketing booms offset slower oil earnings.
The Texas-based behemoth's January-March net profits swelled 10 percent, equating to 1.62 dollars per share, 10 cents better than most Wall Street forecasts.
| ExxonMobil is the world's biggest company in terms of market value and earnings, and its quarterly profits were comfortably more than those of Bank of America, Google, Boeing, McDonald's and Apple combined.
The oil giant's revenues declined slightly to 87.2 billion dollars from 88.9 billion a year earlier.
But ExxonMobil's fat earnings sparked fresh political angst in Congress after presidential hopeful Senator Hillary Clinton had criticized the company's record 2006 earnings of 39.5 billion dollars.
"The CEO of Exxon makes more than 11,000 dollars per hour, while a minimum wage worker pumping gas at an Exxon station makes less than 11,000 dollars a year," Senator Sherrod Brown charged at a press conference backed by other Democratic lawmakers.
Brown lambasted US government tax subsidies benefiting the oil sector and "windfall profits," as he called for a new national energy policy.
ExxonMobil garnered about six billion dollars of profits from "upstream" operations, which include oil and gas exploration and production. That was down slightly from 6.4 billion dollars in the first quarter of 2006.
"In the first quarter, ExxonMobil continued to actively invest, bringing additional crude oil, finished products and natural gas to market," said ExxonMobil's chairman Rex Tillerson.
The drop in upstream income, however, was offset by improved "downstream" refining and marketing operations, which generated a higher profit of 1.9 billion dollars.
Earnings from ExxonMobil's chemical division swelled to 1.3 billion dollars, and the firm's shares closed up 63 cents at 80.55 dollars in Thursday trading.
The energy heavyweight rakes in vast sums of cash from its global operations and presence in most major oil-producing regions.
ExxonMobil signed an agreement with Libya's government during the quarter to prospect for new energy deposits after Washington renewed diplomatic ties with the north African state last year.Its worldwide footprint also spans the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
AFP 26 2054 GMT 04 07
Copyright© 2007 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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