Exxon profits: Vying for a new record

[garybeck]

Soaring crude prices could mean another blockbuster quarter for all the oil majors, if the industry can keep costs in check.
By Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com staff writer
July 25 2006: 1:41 PM EDT


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- If you get queasy at the rising price of gasoline, tune in Thursday when the world's largest company lets the world know just how much it has pocketed in the second quarter 2006.

Exxon Mobil (Charts) has been smashing corporate profit records on the back of soaring oil prices. In the fourth quarter 2005 the company reported quarterly profits of $10.7 billion, the highest ever for a U.S. company, on $88.3 billion in revenue, or $1.72 a share.

That record was mostly due to the price of crude, which soared 40 percent between the close of the fourth quarter 2004 and the end of the fourth quarter 2005.

Since then, oil prices have gone no where but up. Crude has gained 31 percent from the close of the second quarter 2005 to the end of the second quarter 2006, and has gone from trading in the low $60s during the fourth quarter of 2005 to the low $70s in the second quarter 2006.

rest of article
http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/25/news/companies/oil_earnings/index.htm

[NEOBuckeye]

1. Exxon should be nationalized n/t

[timontheleft]

4. I agree

I think all oil should be nationalized. It's not like we REALLY have a choice in the matter anyway. Most of us HAVE to buy gas, and I'm not sure getting to choose between paying 3.05 at one station or paying . . . uh, 3.05 at the station across the street qualifies as "market driven".

[RB TexLa]

8. And if ExxonMobil were stolen from the shareholders

would I still have to sell my oil to the nationalized company? I have an idea they would force me to sell to them at their price which I am sure would be lower than what ExxonMobil pays.

[Sherman A1]

2. Great

I would hate to think, that the oil companies and their Exec's might not be making enough money. Goodness, just what would they do?

[marmar]

3. At least my $3.14 a gallon is making somebody's life better....

:sarcasm:

[proud patriot]

5. I wonder how many cars, boats,and houses that person owns

:grr:

[TahitiNut]

6. It cost me $55 to fill my mother's 1977 Monte Carlo yesterday.

(Try to imagine the sound of me screaming loud enough to be heard over the entire 9th Congressional District.)

I remember when $55 was enough to feed a family of three for a week. With guests for Sunday dinner.

A 29-year-old Chevrolet Monte Carlo with 47,000 miles, air-conditioned, spotless original upholstery, one-owner.

... and 12 mpg. (No wonder it hasn't been driven very far.)

[smtpgirl]

9. Does that equal to 1978-1980 gas prices??

I had a 1975 Mercury Montego in 1979 with a 351 Windsor engine, it got 16mpg.

Are MPG's that much higher now?

[TahitiNut]

11. Even adjusting for inflation, we're at all-time highs now.

http://zfacts.com/p/35.html

Up until about the 1974 OPEC oil embargo, not many folks really paid much attention to MPG. Muscle cars and road yachts sold well, even though there were people like the left side of my family who drove VW's and focused on both MPG and reliability. Mileage between 10-15mpg was rather "normal" here in the Detroit area. Working for Chevrolet, I bought a Camaro RS that got around 16mpg and a Vega that got around 18-20mpg in 1970-71. In about 1976, I bought a new Volvo 242 expecting around 18-22mpg - as most folks got from them. I got 12mpg, no matter what I did - and that was highway driving. I had it in to two different dealers several times, but they refused to replace obviously defective Bosch fuel injectors. Volvo of America refused, sayin they "didn't advertise gasoline mileage" and wouldn't repair it since it didn't qualify as a warranteed performance issue. My next car was a VW Rabbit hatchback. Needless to say, I'll nver buy a Volvo again. I'd rather walk.

I believe the Monte Carlo has the standard 305cid small-block engine (8-cyl, 2-bbl) with 145 hp. (I don't think she's got the 350cid in it.) 1977 was the only model year that Chevrolet's mid-size car line was longer and heavier than than the full-size car line, due to the downsizing of the full-size cars a year earlier than the mid-size downsizing. The next year, the Monte Carlo was a foot shorter and 800lb lighter. Chevrolet made over 410,000 Monte Carlos in 1977.

[smtpgirl]

7. Maybe we should figure a way how

to fuel our cars with biodiesel & ethanol. That is the only way that we will hurt Exxon.

That corporate behemoth will be slow in the market. They can't move that fast. That company will be erecting ethanol/biodiesel pumps in 2009.

For myself, I only buy products with 10% ethanol or more, Citgo, Sunoco, Free State (MD), I haven't bought Exxon (most expensive gas and near major road routes) for at least 20 years, when Valdez ran ashore. I haven't bought Mobil since Exxon bought out that company. It is your choice, you can make the decision.

[garybeck]

10. run your car on vegetable oil. i do.

it's the best way to screw the oil companies.