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Exxon Mobil, the world’s biggest publicly traded oil company, said Thursday that its profit fell 68 percent in the third quarter as oil and natural gas prices slumped from last year’s highs. The company earned $4.73 billion, or 98 cents a share in the quarter, less than analysts had expected. That compares with earnings of $14.83 billion in the period a year ago, the company’s best quarter ever. Exxon became the world’s most profitable corporation in 2008, earning $45 billion with oil averaging $100 a barrel. But the drop in prices has hurt Exxon and most other oil companies, as...

What a difference a year makes. In 2008, we were treated night after night to video clips of the obscene spectacle of Congresspersons berating oil company executives because Big Oil was making a profit. There was talk of Excess Profits Taxes, and endless posturing punctuated with faux indignity. Okay, fast forward to now, and try to pick out the phony headline . . .

Yesterday, the major indices were changed only marginally again for the second day in a row. Today, however, all three look up nearly a full percentage point at the open. The Dow will likely open above 9100 and the NASDAQ might test 2000 before the end of the day. There's going to be a lot of earnings released today. Cigna, Kodak, Walt Disney and Exxon Mobil all report earnings today.

Oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp. is making a major jump into renewable energy with a $600 million investment in algae-based biofuels. Exxon is joining a biotech company, Synthetic Genomics Inc., to research and develop next-generation biofuels produced from sunlight, water and waste carbon dioxide by photosynthetic pond scum.

"Demand has not picked up," says CEO Rex Tillerson. Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson says a weakened dollar, not an increase in demand is the reason for the sharp run up in the price of oil. “When you look at just fundamentals, there’s not a lot to support the kind of price movement we have seen, let’s say, in the last six weeks,” Tillerson, head of the world’s biggest oil company, said after a speech today at a gas conference in Groningen, Netherlands. Concerns about a weakening dollar and inflation had led some investors to bet on an economic recovery and...

http://governorpalin4president.blogspot.com/2009/06/investors-business-daily-exxon-gov.html

The TransCanada Press Release: ANCHORAGE, Alaska – June 11, 2009 – TransCanada Corporation (TSX, NYSE: TRP) (TransCanada) today announced that TransCanada and ExxonMobil have reached an agreement to work together on an Alaska gas pipeline. TransCanada’s Alaska Pipeline Project is designed to deliver a reliable and secure source of clean energy to markets for decades to come. With an initial forecasted capital cost of US$26 billion, the project would provide a variety of benefits to Alaska and Canada, as well as the rest of the United States, including substantial revenues, jobs, business opportunities and new, long-term stable supplies of natural...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 09-145 Historic Agreement Moves AGIA Forward Governor Applauds Private-Sector Alignment June 11, 2009, Dallas, Texas - TransCanada Corporation and ExxonMobil announced today they have reached terms on a gas pipeline development agreement. TransCanada and ExxonMobil have agreed to work together to progress the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA) Gas Pipeline Project. AGIA was created as a commercial vehicle for advancing the Alaska gas pipeline project through the first stages of development of what will be the largest private energy project in the world. "In a volatile world with growing energy needs, the time is now to...

Exxon Mobil is in discussions with TransCanada to help it build a massive pipeline to move natural gas from the North Slope of Alaska to U.S. markets, according to a source familiar with the deal. The move could undermine a competing effort by ConocoPhillips and BP. Irving-based Exxon would not be just a passive customer of the pipeline, which could cost as much as $30 billion and run 1,700 miles, but would likely be involved in the design and construction, according to the source. Exxon has deep expertise with large construction projects, including in harsh climates like Alaska. "As a...

The body of a dead humpback whale was tied to a buoy near the oil terminal in Valdez Harbor Tuesday night after it was struck by an oil tanker on Monday. Federal officials are still not sure exactly what happened, but environmentalists are concerned about the loss of an endangered giant of the sea. In the more than 30 years that oil tankers have been coming to Valdez -- and during more than 20,000 tanker visits to the oil terminal -- people say they've never seen this happen before. "It was struck by an oil tanker and carried into Valdez,"...

Companies: After an all-out war on oil companies from the left in recent years, it bodes well for the future to see Big Oil now recognizing the attack it's under and its duty to fight back. Witness Chevron and Exxon Mobil.Shareholder meetings can be pro forma affairs, but not for major oil companies, which have become a lightning rod for the anti-corporate sentiment gaining traction in U.S. political life since around 2006. Wednesday, Chevron was descended upon by a zoo-full of San Francisco leftists pushing rain forest sentimentalism, Burma, and other pet causes dear to the no-soap crowd. They journeyed...

Is oil giant Exxon Mobile preparing itself for the beginning of the end of oil? It sure looks like it. In its 2008 Corporate Citizens Report released Friday the company promises to battle greenhouse gas emissions by increasing energy efficiency in the short term, advancing emission-reducing technologies in the medium term, and developing technologies such as solar, next generation biofuels and coal gasification for the long term.

Exxon Mobil has unseated Wal-Mart Stores to top the 2009 Fortune 500 list after a year the magazine called the worst ever for the country’s 500 largest publicly traded companies.

The AP makes a good case that, because oil rich nations need capital due to the low price of crude, large oil companies may have leverage to get contracts that give them better deals for drilling and refining. The news agency writes, "Experts say Western oil corporations, who stockpiled cash when profits were flush, can shift operations to any corner of the globe and have the capital that allows them to strike deals with state-controlled producers on very favorable terms." For oil companies liike Exxon (XOM), it would be a sort of revenge on nations like Venezuela that nationalized many...

TOWSON, Md. – A jury is awarding about $150 million to nearly 300 people who sued Exxon Mobil over wells contaminated by a gasoline leak north of Baltimore. The Baltimore County jury awarded a majority of the families in the lawsuit about $1 million each for emotional distress Thursday. Other damages cover declining home values and lifetime medical monitoring. The jury didn't find Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil committed fraud, and therefore couldn't impose punitive damages. The plaintiffs had sought several billion in damages. About 26,000 gallons of gasoline leaked from a gas station in 2006 in the town of Jacksonville.

Last week, as a friend of mine and I were discussing the energy business, an acquaintance of ours came into the room. When told the topic of discussion, she immediately denounced Exxon Mobil. She'd just heard on the radio that the energy giant had had a record $45.2 billion profit in 2008. She was clearly hoping that we would join in her disgust. I asked, "So are you suggesting that Exxon should not make money?" I went on, "Would you prefer that Exxon be like AIG, or Citigroup, or one of the big Wall Street outfits that's now asking for...

HOUSTON (AP) -- Exxon Mobil Corp. on Friday reported a profit of $45.2 billion for 2008, breaking its own record for a U.S. company, even as its fourth-quarter earnings fell 33 percent from a year ago. The previous record for annual profit was $40.6 billion, which the world's largest publicly traded oil company set in 2007. The extraordinary full-year profit wasn't a surprise given crude's triple-digit price for much of 2008, peaking near an unheard of $150 a barrel in July. Since then, however, prices have fallen roughly 70 percent amid a deepening global economic crisis. In the fourth quarter...

Exxon says old wells can be produced, just not optimal for reservoir development - - - - - ExxonMobil is continuing to develop its initial drilling plan for Point Thomson — although the Alaska Department of Natural Resources has terminated the unit and the leases — and that plan now includes nine wells, up from the initial five-well plan the company presented to DNR last year. Craig Haymes, ExxonMobil Production’s Alaska manager, said Jan. 12 that the additional wells reflect the continuous nature of drilling planned for Point Thomson, a high-pressure gas condensate reservoir adjacent to the Arctic National Wildlife...

Exxon CEO Advocates Emissions Tax By RUSSELL GOLD and IAN TALLEY The chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp. for the first time called on Congress to enact a tax on greenhouse-gas emissions in order to fight global warming. In a speech in Washington, Rex Tillerson said that a tax was a "more direct, a more transparent and a more effective approach" to curtailing greenhouse gases than other plans popular in Congress and with the incoming Obama administration. "My greatest concern is that policy makers will attempt to mandate or ordain solutions that are doomed to fail," Mr. Tillerson said. The...

HOUSTON (AP) - Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's biggest oil refiner, will spend more than $1 billion in the next couple of years to increase its global production of cleaner-burning diesel by about 10 percent, the company said Monday. The announcement comes as many oil producers and refiners scale back spending because of the sharp decline in crude prices, dismal expectations for energy demand in 2009 and tight credit markets that have put many big capital expenditures out of reach.

First round of Exxon payments ordered The Associated Press Published: November 24th, 2008 04:06 PM Last Modified: November 24th, 2008 04:06 PM A judge has ordered the first round of punitive damages be issued to plaintiffs in the nation's worst oil spill.

After listening to Obama spew about how he is going to tax the fat cats at Exxon it occurred to me that "we" are the fat cats. Exxon has 5 BILLION shares outstanding. No single entity owns more than 5% of the company. Institutions own 50% of the outstanding shares.

An excerpt from Rush Limbaugh dot com, paid subscriber's side:Rush speaks: But the interview with Charles Gibson on ABC, and they write this up at the ABC website: "ExxonMobil CEO and chairman Rex Tillerson defended his company's staggering $11.7 billion in profits for the second quarter, saying that the company's earnings reflected the magnitude of its business operation. 'I saw someone characterize our profits the other day in terms of $1,400 in profit per second. Well, they also need to understand we paid $4,000 a second in taxes, and we spent $15,000 a second in cost,' Tillerson told ABC News'...

Much has been made of the reported profits of oil companies; the implication is that Bib Oil is ripping us off. The left has relied on the fact that Exxon Mobil’s profits for the last quarter were the largest in corporate history. And it’s always an excuse to demonize the part of a free economy that is the bête noir of the Left at the time. The Chairman of Exxon Mobil, Rex Tillerson, gave an interview to ABC news recently and this is what he said: "I saw someone characterize our profits the other day in terms of $1,400 in...

Economics: When capitalists fail to defend the system that's done more than any other to end human misery, they make a fatal mistake. That's why it's so encouraging to see Exxon Mobil's CEO stand up for his business.On July 31, Exxon Mobil reported an $11.7 billion second-quarter profit, breaking the record for a U.S. company that it previously set. Naturally, politicians and the public, provoked by a financially ignorant media, reacted as if the company had stolen the money. Barack Obama called the earnings "outrageous." Sen. Charles Schumer, Democrat from New York, called oil industries "the most selfish group of...

With $1 billion a month in state oil profits, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has converted cash into political clout.

Maybe it was a stab by Charles Gibson to provide a national group therapy session for his 8 million viewers, but the ABC "World News" anchor aggressively questioned ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson on the August 14 broadcast for "obscene" profits and asked him to "justify" the company's success. "As we said earlier, Rex Tillerson - who is the board chair and CEO of ExxonMobil, doesn't talk often to the press," Gibson said. "His company has reported remarkable profits in the first half of this year. The high price of gas brought ExxonMobil close to $22 billion in profit - in...

Liberals call Exxon's $12 billion last quarter profit "obscene" and have threatened to seize it or impose a "windfall profit tax." But how much did the government make by taxing the gas Exxon sold? Read today's installment of "Geeks On Caffeine" to find out. Even worse, find out what the government is doing with that pile of money!! Note: the author has requested that you visit his web site and refrain from pasting the cartoon within this thread. Thank you very much!

I've seen a lot of Obama ads claiming McCain is "in the pocket of big oil," and the DNC has created an "Exxon-McCain" site. You would think they would have checked which candidate has collected more donations from Exxon employees. Yup, it's Obama. But I guess he can re-run that silly ad that brags that he takes no money from oil companies... just like every other candidate for federal office.

The Democratic National Committee may be trying to get some mileage out of recent news about oil industry contributions to Republican Sen. John McCain, launching a web site spoofing the idea of McCain sharing his presidential ticket with Exxon. But they may have found an unwelcome surprise in a just-released analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics. Turns out, the biggest recipient of contributions from Exxon executives and employees during this campaign is not McCain. It's Obama. The non-partisan center writes: "Through June, Exxon employees have given Obama $42,100 to McCain's $35,166. Chevron favors Obama $35,157 to $28,500, and Obama...

This is from Carpe Diem: Professor Mark J. Perry's Blog for Economics and Finance's blog... CNN's headline: "Exxon posts record $11.68 billion profit." According to CNN, Exxon Mobil once again reported the largest quarterly profit in U.S. history Thursday, posting net income of $11.68 billion on revenue of $138 billion in the second quarter. That profit works out to $1,485.55 a second. Buried in the story we also find that "In addition to making hefty profits, Exxon also had a hefty tax bill. Worldwide, the company paid $10.5 billion in income taxes in the second quarter, $9.5 billion in sales...

Just heard Mark Levin mention this point on his show tonight. The item he referred to is from Mark Perry at istockanalyst.com, who commented on CNNMoney.com's coverage of Exxon Mobil's profit report today: According to CNN, Exxon Mobil once again reported the largest quarterly profit in U.S. history Thursday, posting net income of $11.68 billion on revenue of $138 billion in the second quarter.That profit works out to $1,485.55 a second. Buried in the story we also find that "In addition to making hefty profits, Exxon also had a hefty tax bill. Worldwide, the company paid $10.5 billion in income...

When the tobacco industry was feeling the heat from scientists who showed that smoking caused cancer, it took decisive action. It engaged in a decades-long public relations campaign to undermine the medical research and discredit the scientists. The aim was not to prove tobacco harmless but to cast doubt on the science. In May this year, the multibillion-dollar oil giant Exxon-Mobil acknowledged that it had been doing something similar. It announced that it would cease funding nine groups that had fuelled a global campaign to deny climate change. Exxon's decision comes after a shareholder revolt by members of the Rockefeller...

Exxon Posts Record $32.36 Billion Tax Payment Although the way CNN reported it is "Exxon posts record $11.68 billion profit." According to CNN, Exxon Mobil once again reported the largest quarterly profit in U.S. history Thursday, posting net income of $11.68 billion on revenue of $138 billion in the second quarter. That profit works out to $1,485.55 a second. Buried in the story we also find that "In addition to making hefty profits, Exxon also had a hefty tax bill. Worldwide, the company paid $10.5 billion in income taxes in the second quarter, $9.5 billion in sales taxes, and over...

Exxon has record profit again on soaring oil prices Thu Jul 31, 2008 8:15am EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Thursday soaring oil prices pushed its second-quarter earnings up 14 percent, again breaking its own record for the highest-ever profit by a U.S. company.

Energy: Big Oil is easy to kick around — just ask any Democrat in Congress. But China's threats to Exxon Mobil are in another league. Its bid to use Exxon Mobil as a wedge against its rival Vietnam is a case in point.What China's doing in the South China Sea these days is not trade, but blackmail to assert regional dominance. On Sunday, the South China Morning Post reported Chinese officials are threatening to exclude Exxon Mobil from doing business in China if it doesn't pull out of an exploration deal with Vietnam's state oil company, PetroVietnam. The region in...

HONG KONG - CHINA has warned Exxon Mobil Corp to pull out of an exploration deal with Vietnam, describing the project as a breach of Chinese sovereignty, the South China Morning Post reported on Sunday, citing unnamed sources. The article, which cited 'sources close to the US firm", said Chinese diplomats in Washington had made repeated verbal protests to Exxon Mobil executives in recent months, and warned them its future business interests on the mainland could be at risk. The protests involve a preliminary co-operation agreement between state oil firm PetroVietnam and Exxon Mobil covering exploration in the South China...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. Supreme Court, in a fractured ruling, said punitive damages are allowed in a lawsuit over the 1989 Valdez oil spill but that lower courts should reduce the $2.5 billion award. Justice David Souter, in the court's majority opinion, said the punitive damages award should be brought into line with $287 million in compensatory damages awarded against Exxon in the lawsuit. "The award here should be limited to an amount equal to compensatory damages," Souter wrote. The high court otherwise split evenly 4-4 on an important maritime law question in the case but concluded that federal...

Exxon Mobil is getting out of the retail gasoline business, a market where profits have gotten tougher because of high crude oil prices. The world's largest publicly traded oil company said Thursday it will sell its 820-company owned stations and another 1,400 outlets operated by dealers to gasoline distributors across the U.S. The Irving-based company didn't disclose financial details but said the transition will take place over a "multiyear period."

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Exxon is getting out of retail gas business, according to the Dallas Morning News and Fox Business News. Exxon was not immediately available to comment on the news. The Dallas Morning News reported Exxon said it will sell the 2,220 service stations it still owns across the United States. There are 12,000 Exxon Mobil branded stations, the majority of which are already owned by families or companies outside of Exxon

As any recent television viewer can attest, the American Petroleum Institute - the main lobbying group for the oil industry - has launched a huge ad campaign designed to tell Big Oil’s side of the $4-a-gallon gasoline story. Aimed at one audience – voters – the multimedia, multimillion-dollar propaganda blitz is a necessary antidote to the misinformation and false charges we constantly hear about Big Oil from Big Media and our duly elected demagogues. We’ve all heard about the alleged sins of Big Oil, the handy media-made pejorative for the world’s largest oil and gasoline manufacturers:

Energy: Exxon Mobil's CEO says his energy company's "corporate social responsibility" is to produce more energy. While Congress wants to tax oil profits, he wants to spend them to find more oil. What a concept.While some companies like British Petroleum run endless ads touting their capitulation to the global warming religion by saying they are "beyond" petroleum, Exxon Mobil has been refreshingly unapologetic about developing the resources beneath our feet and making money doing it. Speaking to reporters after the annual meeting of Exxon stockholders Wednesday, CEO Rex Tillerson shoved political correctness aside and insisted the science on climate change...

DALLAS -- Rex Tillerson, chairman and chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest oil-and-gas company, came out swinging Wednesday against the environmental movement, arguing the science of climate change is far from settled and that his company views it as its "corporate social responsibility" to continue to supply the world with fossil fuels. Speaking to reporters after the annual meeting of shareholders, at which much-publicized proposals by the Rockefeller family calling for new investment in renewable energy received little support, Mr. Tillerson also said he expects little delay in the $8-billion Kearl oilsands project in Alberta, after a...

Energy, Russia, U.S. Politics, Environment, China, Middle East Supply-demand out of sync: Not enough exploration, drilling and reinvestment in the oil patch The run-up in oil, commodity and food prices is not a bubble or conspiracy mounted by cartels or speculators or dictators or ethanol. Exxon and OPEC bashing in Congress, and a host of populist musings in the media and blogosphere, have it all wrong. Washington's politicians and policy makers have been parochial and woefully ignorant of economic developments around the world. That is why their prescriptions are either paranoid or populist stupidity which do not address the issues....

Exxon Mobil is the largest U.S. oil and gas company, but we account for only 2 percent of global energy production, only 3 percent of global oil production, only 6 percent of global refining capacity, and only 1 percent of global petroleum reserves. With respect to petroleum reserves, we rank 14th. Government-owned national oil companies dominate the top spots. For an American company to succeed in this competitive landscape and go head to head with huge government-backed national oil companies, it needs financial strength and scale to execute massive complex energy projects requiring enormous long-term investments. To simply maintain our...

A shareholder revolt at ExxonMobil led by the billionaire Rockefeller family has won the support of four significant British institutional investors who will call on Monday for a shakeup in the governance of the world's biggest oil company. Guardian.co.uk has learned that F&C Asset Management, Morley Fund Management, the Co-Operative Insurance Society and the West Midlands Pension Fund are throwing their weight behind a resolution demanding that ExxonMobil appoints an independent chairman to stimulate debate on the company's board.

With gas prices topping four dollars a gallon in some regions of the country, now may not be the best time to say something positive about "big oil," but here goes anyway. Where is it written that the cost for a product or service should be frozen in place and in time, never to rise again, or to rise at a pace commensurate with our incomes? People who think this way know little to nothing about supply and demand and less than nothing about the profit motive. That's because at least three generations have been raised on the notion of...

Exxon Mobil recently posted the biggest-ever annual profit for a U.S. company at $40.6 billion dollars. Outrageous — they gasp — consumers are obviously being gouged by Big Oil. Let’s look at the facts. First of all, just who is “Big Oil?” Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, Chevron Texaco, Conoco Phillips? Wrong! It’s the government-controlled national oil companies of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, Libya, Algeria, Nigeria, Russia, Brazil, China, etc. In fact, the privately held Western oil companies that most people associate with “Big Oil” control less than 6 percent of the world’s reserves. Do these companies set the price...

In the first quarter, Exxon-Mobil earned $10.9 billion, but at the same time paid a total of $29.3 billion in taxes...

The Rockefeller family, the longest continuous shareholder in ExxonMobil, is abandoning its behind-the-scenes role at the company to press for corporate governance reforms including an independent chairman and a stronger board. Family representatives have scheduled a news conference for Wednesday to issue a public rebuke to the company, which began as part of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil. “After years of working behind the scenes to encourage Exxon’s management to approach its industry challenges in new ways, members of the Rockefeller family will publicly explain the concerns held by multiple generations of their family,’’ the family said in a statement....