EXXON Mobil (Oil Company) Makes RECORD Profit! Wait, How Can This Be?

Surely, the gas and oil companies must be feeling some of the comsumer's pain due to situations abroad (Ex: Iraq war, middle east (other than Iraq) crisis), right? I mean, they are the ones who have to purchase the crude in the first place. The high prices that they pay are then transferred to the consumer just so that gas/oil manufacturers can keep their companies afloat. Sounds about right--everybody hurts.





So then, is it odd that I find it difficult to swallow a headline such as the one found in the Yahoo article (link) below? Maybe I just don't understand. The outrageous gas prices that we have been paying ARE indeed paying off for someone--the oil companies and the Men and Women that champion them. I'm sure that Exxon and other companies would prefer to keep this information (profits) hush, save for the fact that they are forced to announce their financial situation due to their publicly traded shares.





Anyone else want to vent or expain?EXXON Mobil (Oil Company) Makes RECORD Profit! Wait, How Can This Be?
Although a barrel of oil today is $68 per barrel, companies like XOM have a lot of reserves of oil that they bought or took out of the ground at $40 per barrel. These companies also use the futures market to hedge the price of these reserves to ensure that they remain profitable





Another reason that their profits are so high is because the government has allowed so many mergers in the oil industry. There is now much less competition. Also, companies like XOM do the exploration, the drilling, the transporting, the refining and they own the retail outlets where the gas is sold. Every one of these operations is getting a few cents for every gallon of gas sold and XOM keeps it all.





I don't blame the oil companies for this. They are just taking advantage of the free capatilist markets and maximizing shareholder wealth. That is the mission of any publicly held company. The government is the one to blame. The Federal Trade Commission should have never allowed the mega mergers in the oil industry over the last few years. Now these companies need more competition, but they are not going to get it. Because of all of the environmental concerns, the government has not allowed a new refinery to be built in this country in the last 20 years. I am not sure what the answer is, but the government got us into this mess and now they need to find a solution to get us out of it.EXXON Mobil (Oil Company) Makes RECORD Profit! Wait, How Can This Be?
The consumer is getting screwed...again. What is there to explain?
They are not feeling any of our pain. They raise pices so that they dont suffer, and Bush`s friends and family own and make money out of these companies thats why Bush dont give a d*** about the consumers whose hard work keep this country going. Watch Fahrenheit 9-11, that states all those cold hard facts for you.
One of your premises is flawed. Exxon's most profitable business segments is exploration and production - they find and produce the oil through contracts with the owners of the land. In short, they are the sellers of the oil. So when the price goes up, they increase their revenue and profits.





Also, they spend an incredible amount of money every year on production, R%26amp;D and exploration. So much that the amount of profit that they make as a percentage of sales is under 11%. For every dollar in sales they profit 11 cents.





While the amounts involved are huge, the percentages are relatively in line with most other industries.





We should toast their achievement!
Us Americans are creating record demand for gas--purchasing SUVs, driving alone to work, etc. Increased consumption = increased demand = increased prices.... Also there is a supply shortage due to lack of refinery capacity. As a result prices go up as well.