Exxon Mobil Corp said yesterday it earned US$10.36 billion in the second quarter, the second largest quarterly profit ever recorded by a publicly traded US company.
The earnings figure was 36 percent above the profit it reported a year ago. High oil prices helped boost the company's revenue by 12 percent to a level just short of a quarterly record.
Exxon Mobil's report comes a day after another large US oil company, ConocoPhillips, said it earned more than US$5 billion in the quarter and at a time when many drivers in the US are paying US$3 for a gallon of gas (US$0.79 per liter) -- increasing the likelihood of further political backlash in Washington.
Exxon Mobil, the world's largest oil company by market capitalization, said earnings amounted to US$1.72 per share in the April-June quarter compared with a profit of US$7.64 billion, or US$1.20 per share, a year ago.
The results topped Wall Street expectations but came in behind Exxon Mobil's record profit of US$10.71 billion set in the fourth quarter of last year.
Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected the company to earn US$1.64 per share.
Revenue rose to US$99.03 billion from US$88.57 billion in the prior-year quarter. That was short of Exxon Mobil's record third-quarter revenue of US$100.72 billion -- which also stands as record revenue generated by any US public company ever in a single quarter.
Its shares rose US$0.85 to US$67.45 in premarket trading. That would top its 52-week high of US$67.18.
Exxon Mobil said it spent US$4.9 billion on capital and exploration projects during the quarter, up 8 percent from a year ago, while distributing US$7.9 billion to shareholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases. Congress has been urging the big oil companies to put more of their profits toward boosting the supply of energy for consumers.
By segment, exploration and production earnings rose sharply to US$7.13 billion, up US$2.23 billion from the second quarter of last year, a reflection of higher crude and natural gas prices. Production increased 6 percent from a year ago.
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