Gassed Up: Exxon Mobil posts record $45.2 billion profit in 2008
Another year, another record profit statement from Exxon Mobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company. The specific mind-numbingly large figure is $45.2 billion, which translates to $8.69 per share. While this figure handily beats the previous record of $40.6 billion that had been set by Exxon Mobil in 2007, these huge profits were recorded mostly in the second and third quarters of 2008 when fuel prices were at record levels in much of the world. Fourth quarter earnings fell by 27%, though it's tough to feel too sorry for a company that still made $84.7 billion in the down economy.
Chevron, second only to Exxon Mobil in size, managed to post a $43 billion profit in 2008, but other smaller oil companies haven't been quite as successful in navigating the sinking global economy. Royal Dutch Shell, Europe's largest oil company, posted its first quarterly loss in a decade after seeing huge profits earlier in the year. The coming year should prove to be a similar challenge for each of the oil producing companies.
[Source: AP via Google | Photo by David McNew/Getty]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
rsfourever 12:35PM (1/30/2009)
good for them. if people are willing to pay, then let them charge it. and in any case, they don't make money from high gas prices - they make money from high transaction volume (they just tack on a fee on top of what they pay to buy crude oil, and then sell it to the people)
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Fernando 12:38PM (1/30/2009)
My problem is the layoffs that Exxon has had in the past year.
2004m3driver 1:20PM (1/30/2009)
Good for them they managed to own the system! I'd love to be naive and think its all fair play, but come on. Look at how much protection they have. This is far from at regular business with so much loopholes and money in the pockets of officials its hard for even them to hide their own bull. Fake oil shortages? Lack of refineries? When there is a surplus, what happened? They got together and limited production to protect prices. If it was a regular capitalist business they all should be allowed to take a hit in their profits like the rest of the economy. Oh well right? Good for them! I guess I would do the same damn thing when I am too rich to give a sh*t.
2004m3driver 1:21PM (1/30/2009)
Good for them they managed to own the system! I'd love to be naive and think its all fair play, but come on. Look at how much protection they have. This is far from at regular business with so much loopholes and money in the pockets of officials its hard for even them to hide their own bull. Fake oil shortages? Lack of refineries? When there is a surplus, what happened? They got together and limited production to protect prices. If it was a regular capitalist business they all should be allowed to take a hit in their profits like the rest of the economy. Oh well right? Good for them! I guess I would do the same damn thing when I am too rich to give a damn.
3seriesisking 1:45PM (1/30/2009)
People who's lives and families require them to buy said gasoline at exorbitant prices. That kind of idiotic and cold-hearted rhetoric you're spitting out makes me sick. The petrol companies should be ashamed that they are laying off their own workers because of "economic issues" when they post record profits on top of the fact that the average joe had to suffer from the prices they imposed.
Sea Urchin 1:47PM (1/30/2009)
3series, you need petrol? Why? To earn a pay check? Sorry bro, should have found a job closer to your home or the one that can be reached with a bus.
We will not abandon capitalism simply because you failed to plan where to live and to work.
AZZO45b 2:39PM (1/30/2009)
Where the H*ll do you live Sea Urch? The bus?? Where I live the bus would get you FIRED within weeks (you would be late all the time). I see all those middle class engineers, saleman, etc hitting the bus... You're being funny... HAHA.
I'm sure the banks will LOVE your concept. Empty the suburbs & return everyone to the big cities. Think home values are low now, just wait. All those SoCal people that have the costal home... back to LA city limits. Come on, businesses are not centered in big cities... your sweeping generalizations just sound unrealistic & impractical.
Sea Urchin 3:46PM (1/30/2009)
Azzo, i start at 9, but i leave home every day at 7
Cole 3:55PM (1/30/2009)
Economics 101 at your local community college would help most of these dingbats understand. Publicly traded companies are owned by THE STOCKHOLDERS. Do you have a 401k? A money market bank account? You own a piece then, so stop thinking some rich guy gets all the money. 8 bucks profit per share means the shareholders make money, not just some "Fat Cats". Maniupulate supply? Howabout the tree huggers let us build a refinery or two... but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Sheep...
AZZO45b 4:16PM (1/30/2009)
So urch, you take the bus & you want company? Most of my jobs have had 7AM start times & only yellow school buses seem to be circulating at 5-6AM.
Plus, if I make $20-30 an hour... waiting for a bus & making $0 while I do it makes no economic sense. As I mentioned, I have had gigs that allow me to ride in (shower up when I arrive & store the bike). At least with this early wake-up I'm paying myself with a work out regime.
g00fba11 7:57PM (1/30/2009)
All of you who are disgusted that Exxon, other oil cos made so much money, do you prefer that they cut corners, sell their products with rebates, employee pricing, and slowly bleed their cash so that the taxpayers can be asked to bail them out? To see how quickly fortune can change in this business, do a little reading on Gazprom.
Kaptain75329 12:35PM (1/30/2009)
Oh boy. This post is textbook flame bait.
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CarbonBlack 12:53PM (1/30/2009)
No Kidding!!
I shall be watching/waiting for WWIII to begin
Sea Urchin 1:12PM (1/30/2009)
No one is blaming Exxon. They make money. If people are offended they should buy more efficient cars.
Now, Exxon is not the only entity that made money, so did saudi arabia....................that money will of course comeback to us in some form of terrorist attack.
Sea Urchin 1:42PM (1/30/2009)
PJ, US spends about 15 billion a a month on oil from saudi arabia alone.
In any case, say we get 100% of oil from Canada, Puerto Rico---------basically our friends. That doesn't change the fact that we send billions a month to ANOTHER country who uses that money to improve itself. If we used less oil, that money would have stayed here in USA to improve USA.
Another thing, before oil, middle east was like second coming of sub saharan Africa, now the finance terrorism. Let's get them back into those 1800's by buying more efficient cars.
pmiddle5 2:02PM (1/30/2009)
^^^ well have have consistently shrank our useage of oil proportionate to how many cars are on the road for sometime now except for that little SUV swell that got carried away for a bit. Even then the general usage was lower then previous. We have almost always used the exact amount of oil but continue putting more cars on the road that use less. That aint bad
PJ 2:28PM (1/30/2009)
Since you brought it up, Sea Urchin, only 19% of each barrel of crude oil is actually refined into gasoline. The rest of goes into diesel, heating oil, jet fuel, LPG, etc.
In other words, while I think fuel economy is important on a population level and it does affect my vehicle purchases, only 19% of 22%--that's 4%--of our oil money is going to the Middle East *and* is used to fuel personal vehicles. So while the cars that people buy are a highly visible indicator of how much they may give a sh!t about fossil-fuel burning and/or reliance upon the Middle East, they're not the key to affecting significant change.
In other words, if you buy a Yaris but fly to Europe twice a year, you might as well have bought a Hummer. Then there's the separate matter of vehicle emissions. If that's where you want to focus, then our efforts would be better spent working with the trucking industry or with industrializing nations to clean up their rapidly-growing vehicle fleets than obsessing over our own relatively-squeaky-clean new cars in the US.
My point is, if we're really concerned about oil use *on a population level* in the US, we ought to be thinking bigger (i.e. reconsidering our reluctance to adopt nuclear power, accepting tax hikes to fund alt-fuel research, etc.) rather than fixating on cars because they're the most salient target.
Sea Urchin 3:47PM (1/30/2009)
PJ, basically everyone is at fault but D3?
PJ 4:32PM (1/30/2009)
The "import vs. D3" debate is not only has no bearing on the energy frontier we're facing, it's insignificant in comparison. You're exemplifying what I mean by people needing to think bigger.
Sea Urchin 4:45PM (1/30/2009)
@ PJ "You're exemplifying what I mean by people needing to think bigger."------------You are 100% right