Exxon’s Earnings Reflect Decline in Energy Prices

[ashling]

Source: NYT

Exxon Mobil, the world’s biggest publicly traded oil company, said Thursday that its profit fell 68 percent in the third quarter as oil and natural gas prices slumped from last year’s highs.

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But the drop in prices has hurt Exxon and most other oil companies, as the economy has slowed. Many companies have been forced to cut budgets and abandon some projects. Exxon has resisted the slump better than most. The company said that its spending has fallen by 5 percent compared with last year, to $6.5 billion. Its oil and gas production in the period rose by 3 percent.

****

Meanwhile, Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s biggest oil company, reported a 62 percent drop in third-quarter profit Thursday and said that the market remained uncertain.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/business/global/30oil.html

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Awww, poor babies :evilgrin:

[Jazzgirl]

1. Considering that last years profits were due to

artificially inflated prices, it couldn't happen to a better group of a$$holes.

[ashling]

2. Of course, lower profits can only mean one thing

raise the price of EVERYTHING!

:puke:

[Mari333]

3. oh dear, less fois gras and beluga caviar this holiday season

and dadums and mumsie so wanted to buy that island for Muffy and her husband Townsend .
c'est la vie. poor poor little rich people.

why the fck are the gas prices still so goddamned high, then?

[babylonsister]

4. I don't get why gas prices are up so much either. Does anyone

have an explanation?

[ashling]

9. They will do what they have to . . . to raise their profits

unfortunately, it kind of makes sense ... in a perverse, slimy, greedmongering, corporate sort of way.
:shrug:

[Vidar]

5. Awwwww!

[FormerDittoHead]

6. WAIT - LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT.

When 'demand' drove oil prices up 40%, Exxon et al. wasn't just 'passing along the increase', but marked it up MORE than their higher cost of oil?

So.. FUCK YOU, EXXON ET. AL.

OH I HOPE TO DEAR GOD THEY DON'T GO ASKING FOR HELP FROM THE GOVERNMENT...

[high density]

10. Yep, seems you've got it right

I guess demand dropped so sharply that they had no choice but to get their profit margin back down to earth.

[Capn Sunshine]

7. Exxon Mobil 3Q profit drops 68 pct

Source: AP

NEW YORK -- The world's largest publicly traded oil company said Thursday that oil production is bouncing back with crude prices.

A worldwide glut in petroleum supplies may yet cool the latest surge in oil, squeezing refiners and keeping profits in oil patch well below their peak last year or even the past several years.

Exxon Mobil Corp. reported that profits from July to September dropped 68 percent to $4.73 billion, or 98 cents per share. The results were the best of the year so far, but they're less than a third of what Exxon earned in the same period of 2008, when crude prices spiked above $147 a barrel.

In fact, excluding the previous two quarters this year, Exxon has not reported quarterly profits this low in at least the past four years.The Irving, Texas-based company gets most of its income from oil and gas production, and in the third quarter it increased production by 3 percent to 3.69 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. Yet the returns are not as good because crude fetched an average of $50 less per barrel when compared with the year-ago period.


Read more: http://www.fresnobee.com/649/story/1691121.html

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Uh-oh, this will help the bad economy as well. Flies in the face of the common knowledge at DU that we're doooooooooomed.

Actually, beyond cooling demand due to the recession, I think a tiny sliver of this might be due to everyone trying to use less oil. I forget if this is good or bad, but I'm sure DU will sort out the morality of this whole fangdango.

[sofa king]

8. And again, lamenting a reduction in PROFITS.

They didn't lose anything. They just ripped all of us off a little less.