Exxon Mobil posts record $45.2 billion profit

Exxon Mobil posts record $45.2 billion profit

www.msnbc.msn.com

updated 20 minutes ago

HOUSTON - Exxon Mobil reported a profit of $45.2 billion for 2008 Friday, breaking its own record for full-year earnings by a public U.S. company, but fourth-quarter profits tumbled 33 percent.

The fourth-quarter decline is not a surprise with oil’s swift 60 percent plunge in the final three months of the year.

The previous record for annual profit was $40.6 billion, which Exxon Mobil set in 2007.

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Yep, it's another record year for the folks over at Exxon.

Even after a disappointing 4th quarter, here they are breaking their own record from last year. It begs the question as to what the other oil giants are going to show when they announce how they did last year.

If you have any doubt about what is really important to Exxon, it certainly not alternative energy sources. There is now way to charge enough money for solar or wind power to keep profits like this steamrolling ahead for the future.

It's all about oil and our addiction to it. It's sad but true.


www.msnbc.msn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Now I have to ask.

Why are we the ones bailing out the auto industry and not them?

Wait I guess if they bail them out then there would be no incentive for the car manufacturers to create more fuel efficient cars.

But, why isn't Exxon helping to bail out the economy?

Everyone should chip in.

The fact that there is little competition for these oil companies helps too.

What is there, 5 major oil companies? If there were 15, I think they wouldn't be in collusion to keep prices so high. There just isn't enough competition.

Originally posted by Frankidealist35
But, why isn't Exxon helping to bail out the economy?

Exxon Mobil posts record $45.2 billion profit

Looks like they're helping the economy to me.

why is a business started? to help people? no it is to make a profit. exxon made a profit, a large one. why shouldnt they be able to? no matter how much you hate them.

What I took out of this is that if the prices of oil weren't dropped to the levels they are today (see 27% drop in profits for the 4th quarter) they were poised to be making ~$115 billion in that time frame.

I realize the math isn't going to be perfect, but if prices weren't dropped that would have put their profits close to $75 billion (or almost double the $40.6 billion record last year.

They were probably told to cut back the profits a bit when they saw those projected numbers. Were they scared the general populace might realized they were being lied to and fleeced all this time?

reply to post by WestPoint23


I mean, why don't they help the rest of the economy? Like you know, the companies losing their jobs and stuff.

I posted this article after doing a search...oh well I guess the search function isn't working so well. Here is my comment.

Exxon Mobil shatters US record for annual profit

I would like to nominate this quote for "The Understatement of the Year Award"

"With piles of cash and diversified operations, the majors like Exxon Mobil have fared better than many smaller oil and gas companies, but Friday's results show no one is completely insulated from the ongoing malaise."

That is the funny part of this article. After talking about setting record breaking profits the article goes on to say how the price of oil has dropped 60% forcing "some layoffs". Then they go on to mention how Exxon "took a beating" from it's "exploration and production" expenses!

reply to post by Swatman

no problem with making a profit everyone has to eat right??

but in making that profit off a lie that has lasted for over a hundred years is total BS

we went from horse and carige to sending the space shuttle into space to nano tech(mind you it only took 8 meg to land on the moon my phone has way way more computing power then 8 meg)

and we are suposed to believe that we can only have a car that gets 35 mpg ??

give me a break !!! you mean with todays tech being as advanced as it is we still have to power our car with fire !!! really ?? i mean really??

its one thing to make a profit ,its another to make that profit by manipulating the world

we have the ability to get 100s of mpg with todays tech,oil is a scam nothing less

lets get off the cave man power and quit letting oil barons steal our money by making us use oil its a total joke





[edit on 30-1-2009 by lycopersicum]

SHELL did the same in Europe. Actually this is largest proffit ever recorded by a company in the European Union. I guess it was about 40 billions or something similar..

reply to post by Frankidealist35


That's actually a very good question. But that would also not sit well in their greedy little craws.

Don't you know? They're capitalists when there's a profit, socialists when there's not and it's our dime, and flat out greedy all the time.

One would think they could pick up some of the unemployment slack too, yet that does not appear to be happening either?

*Waits for some apologist to come along and tell us how much of this profit they're actually reinvesting into infrastructure and refineries (none) and putting into alternative energy R&D (none that will benefit anyone but them when their well runs dry and not until it runs dry and they can continue to squeeze us).

reply to post by lycopersicum
I couldn't agree more. I've been saying the same thing for years. The fact that we aren't getting better or much better mileage than we were in the seventies, is mind boggling.

I hate to keep repeating myself, but again, follow the money. Money equals power, and the oil companies wield an enormous amount of power.

Star for you sir/ma'am

Everyone notice that gas is inching it's way upward again? If it gets back to even $3 a gallon in this economy, with the present number unemployed, things will get WAY worse than they already are.

reply to post by sos37
Yes, and I question why? Oil is what? $41.00 per barrel. When oil was $150.00 per barrel, gas was $3.99 around here. Gas is $1.87 here now. The numbers do not compute, but I'm not going to actually do the math, but off the top of my head, gas should be around 40 cents less.