Because they switched to GRPlll?????

[tenderloin]

Exxon's 2006 Profit Soars to $39.5 Billion
AP
NEW YORK (Feb. 1) - Oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp. on Thursday posted the largest annual profit by a U.S. company - $39.5 billion - even as earnings for the last quarter of 2006 declined 4 percent.

The 2006 profit topped the previous record of $36.13 billion which Exxon set in 2005.

Revenue at the world's largest publicly traded oil company rose to $377.64 billion for the year, surpassing the record $370.68 billion that Exxon posted in 2005.

Exxon Mobil's record annual earnings followed a year of extraordinarily high energy prices as crude oil topped $78 a barrel in the summer - driving up average gasoline prices in the United States to more than $3 a gallon. Prices retreated later in the year.

The fourth-quarter decline reflects lower profits from Exxon's refining and marketing segment and a sharp dropoff in natural gas prices.

Profit for the fourth quarter of 2006 declined to $10.25 billion from $10.71 billion Exxon earned in the 2005 quarter - a record quarterly profit for any U.S. public company.

Per-share earnings rose to $1.76 from $1.71 as the company reduced the number of shares outstanding.

For the year, Exxon earned $6.62 per share in 2006 versus $5.71 per share in 2005.

 

[goodvibes]

They make a lot more money on gas than oil so I don't thinj grp III is the main factor but it sure didn'y hurt.

 

[Pablo]

No they made money because the are evil, silly.

 

[Curious Kid]

Share holders must be feeling good, having what equates to a gains potential should they cash in...but, boy.

I suppose this goes across the board for all gas suppliers - why is it that the costs at the pump don't fluctuate like the costs of crude resources? I realise there's a delay from the point of resource purchase to be refined and then finally transported to the pump for purchase, but some where the difference is turning into profit for individuals in the sourcing, manufacture and distribution chain. "Business ethics" as usual in an environment where profits are paramount?!?!?!?

Side note -
"America's addicted to oil." - I thought that a bit critical, as the economy for which is touted as being strong, and for which energy is a big facilitater for production and turnover, as well as a raw resource for material, beyind individuals ability to work and trade. A vested business individual no less.

I'm off the soap box now.

 

[427Z06]

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No they made money because they are evil...

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...and greedy.

 

[MC5W20]

Wow, a company is in business to make money? Geez, what will they think of next...

 

[CBDFrontier06]

Making money and raping consumers is two different things. They LOVE market fluctuations because during the same nanosecond oil prices rise, so do the prices at the pump...but when oil prices go down, they take their sweet time reducing gas prices.

 

[cptok]

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Making money and raping consumers is two different things. They LOVE market fluctuations because during the same nanosecond oil prices rise, so do the prices at the pump...but when oil prices go down, they take their sweet time reducing gas prices.

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Ummm -- it's not rape when it's consenting adults.

 

[B00SS]

Making money is what companies are all about. Free enterprise at work. If you don't like their practices and continue to buy from them shame on you. You are the other half of that free enterprise system.

 

[Shannow]

B00SS, that works only when there are other parties competing for your custom. When they all play the same game with an essential commodity...

 

[wavinwayne]

I couldn't care less if Exxon/Mobil made 100 trillion dollars profit. It's a free market & they charge whatetver price the market will bear for their product. Good for them.

 

[Lexura]

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Wow, a company is in business to make money? Geez, what will they think of next...

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A smart company is in the business to make sustainable $ year after year. A dumb company wastes its resource, such as the brand equity of Mobil 1, to make short term $ at the expense of future revenue.

 

[ryncdak]

ConocoPhillips also posted record profit for 2006. Nowhere near as much as Exxon, but Exxon is #1 and ConocoPhillips is #3. Guess that means no more TropArtic, Motorcraft, or Kendall oil, either.

ChevronTexaco is supposed to announce their profits within the next few days. Analysts predict records for them, too. With DepositShield and record profits, no more Havoline or Chevron Supreme, either.

RoyalDutchShell's profits weren't very high. But they got nailed for accounting practices. So, no more Shell, Pennzoil, or Quaker State.

Chavez owns Citgo, so no Citgo.

Gee, what's left? SuperTech. Coastal. AA oil.

 

[nooil]

They make money because people buy their products. People quit buying, they make less. Pretty simple formula.

 

[KBFXDLI]

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Wow, a company is in business to make money? Geez, what will they think of next...

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A smart company is in the business to make sustainable $ year after year. A dumb company wastes its resource, such as the brand equity of Mobil 1, to make short term $ at the expense of future revenue.

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You forget that the members and followers of this forum are probablt .00000000001 % of the people who really understand what you just said....Joe American loves Mobil1 because they put it in Corvettes and Porsches...he would not know if it was 50% water.....so who is dumb?

 

[KBFXDLI]

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Making money is what companies are all about. Free enterprise at work. If you don't like their practices and continue to buy from them shame on you. You are the other half of that free enterprise system.

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Not true with oil...it is controlled from the time it's recovered from the ground to the refinery to the pump. We aren't addicted to it. We are a mechanized society. That's all. Too bad most of the people who control the world oil monopoly are hoodlums.

 

[Lonnie]

These oil companies have a captive market. But there are only three times that they raise prices, when crude prices go up, stay the same or go down. There have been times when they lower prices at the pump, but if you notice they usually hold or increase their margin. Holding the margin when prices go down is their lowest expectation. Our use per passenger mile is always going to go up. Also there are more miles driven and each year there are more of us driving. Not a bad market to be in as a major player.

 

[Shannow]

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...there are only three times that they raise prices, when crude prices go up, stay the same or go down.

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not quite sure that I agree with constant margins...reduced earnings and record profits seem like they are taking a little too much advantage.

 

[427Z06]

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Making money is what companies are all about. Free enterprise at work. If you don't like their practices and continue to buy from them shame on you. You are the other half of that free enterprise system.

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Capitalism - An economic system based on a free market, open competition, profit motive and private ownership of the means of production. Capitalism encourages private investment and business, compared to a government-controlled economy. Investors in these private companies (i.e. shareholders) also own the firms and are known as capitalists.

Perfect competition means there are few, if any, barriers to entry for new companies, and prices are determined by supply and demand.

Unfortunately, the oil business doesn't include perfect or open competition.

 

[Lexura]

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Wow, a company is in business to make money? Geez, what will they think of next...

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A smart company is in the business to make sustainable $ year after year. A dumb company wastes its resource, such as the brand equity of Mobil 1, to make short term $ at the expense of future revenue.

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You forget that the members and followers of this forum are probablt .00000000001 % of the people who really understand what you just said....Joe American loves Mobil1 because they put it in Corvettes and Porsches...he would not know if it was 50% water.....so who is dumb?

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Might be true but majority of people could be slow, but they are not dumb all the time.
"You can fool some of the people some of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time." - Abraham Lincoln