Big Oil's Biggest Quarter Ever: $51.5 Billion in All, page 1

Big Oil's Biggest Quarter Ever: $51.5 Billion in All

apnews.myway.com

HOUSTON (AP) - Oil giants Chevron Corp. (CVX) (CVX) and Total SA (TOT) wrapped up a string of gargantuan, record-breaking earnings reports Friday, a stretch in which six of the major international oil companies topped $50 billion in combined profit for the first time.

While the profits of unparalleled size have brought withering criticism from Washington and disgust from consumers across the country, very few were surprised. Crude prices during the second quarter were nearly double what they were a year ago.

And the pillaging and plundering of this struggling nation continues, courtesy of Big Oil.

Funniest thing is, each time one of these announcements take place (and this seems to be a recurring theme over the past several years), the excusists come out in droves to tell everyone how, "they're really not making much more of a profit, and the Oil Giants aren't the ones to blame here."

Based on these Profits rocketing higher and higher with each consecutive quarter, common sense alone should tell everyone that these stories are not adding up...

But I'm sure the same old song and dance will continue, and we'll just keep getting violated, till they've bled us all into poverty, and no one outside of the super rich and elite can afford to get behind the wheel of a vehicle anymore...

Disgusting is putting it mildly. Total, bottomless greed.

In addition to Chevron, soaring commodity prices led to record quarters for Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), ConocoPhillips, BP PLC (BP) and Royal Dutch Shell PLC. (RDSB) Exxon Mobil stood apart even from this crowd, logging the largest ever quarterly operating profit for a U.S. company. Barring companies that made huge profits on one-time gains like bankruptcy settlements and spin-offs, Exxon Mobil holds the top 10 records for biggest U.S. quarterly earnings.

French energy company Total SA said Friday its profit climbed 38.7 percent in the second quarter to $7.38 billion. Quarterly sales rose 23 percent to $75.25 billion.

Altogether, the profits of the six companies jumped more than 40 percent in the second quarter to $51.5 billion, the first time big Western oil companies have ever reached that level.

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