HOUSTON -- Exxon Mobil Corp. on Friday posted the largest annual profit by a U.S. company—$40.6 billion—as the world's largest publicly traded oil company benefited from historic crude prices at yearend, said the Associated Press.
The Houston-based company also set a U.S. record for the biggest quarterly profit, posting net income of $11.7 billion for the final three months of 2007, besting its own mark of $10.71 billion in fourth-quarter 2005. The previous record for annual profit was $39.5 billion, which Exxon Mobil reported for 2006.
The record profit for the October-December [image-nocss] period amounted to $2.13 a share versus $1.76 a share in 2006. Year-ago net income was $10.25 billion.
ExxonMobil's revenue rose 30% in the fourth quarter to $116.6 billion, from $90 billion a year ago.
For the year, sales rose to $404.5 billion—the most ever for the Irving, Texas-based company—from the $377.64 billion it posted in 2006.
Fourth-quarter 2007 upstream earnings were a record $26.497 billion, an increase of $267 million from 2006. Earnings from U.S. upstream operations in 2007 were $4.87 billion, a decrease of $298 million.
Quarterly downstream earnings of $2.267 billion were $307 million higher than fourth-quarter 2006. Fourth-quarter 2007 earnings also reflected improved refinery operations partly offset by lower U.S. refining margins. U.S. downstream earnings were $622 million, down $323 million from fourth-quarter 2006. For the year, downstream earnings were a record $9.573 billion, up $1.119 billion from 2006, reflecting higher gains on asset sales and improved refinery operations partly offset by lower refining margins. U.S. yearly downstream earnings were $4.120 million, down $130 million.
Meanwhile, San Ramon, Calif.-based Chevron Corp. reported net income of $4.9 billion ($2.32 per share diluted) for fourth-quarter 2007, compared with $3.8 billion ($1.74 per share diluted) in the year-ago period. For full-year 2007, net income was $18.7 billion ($8.77 per share diluted), up 9% from $17.1 billion ($7.80 per share diluted) in 2006.
"Fourth-quarter earnings for our upstream business benefited from a significant increase in the price of crude oil," said chairman and CEO Dave O'Reilly. "However, downstream profits were off sharply because of planned and unplanned refinery downtime in the United States, as well as the impact of higher crude-oil costs that were not fully recovered in the sales price of refined products."
He added, "Our results overall capped a successful year for our company."
U.S. upstream income of $1.38 billion in the fourth quarter increased $492 million from the 2006 period, due mainly to an increase in the price of crude oil.
U.S. downstream incurred a loss of $55 million in fourth-quarter 2007, compared with income of $343 million a year earlier. The swing from profit to a loss was mainly the result of market conditions that prevented the full recovery of higher crude-oil costs in the price of refined products, the adverse effects of refinery downtime and higher operating expenses. The 2007 quarter included a gain on the sale of the company's credit card operations.
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