Exxon rides oil price roller coaster; post record profits

With oil prices at record levels over a substantial part of 2008, oil companies reporting bumper profits should not come as a surprise.

However,  with the tide changing dramatically in the last quarter of 2008, nobody would have expected the profit trend to continue. But that is exactly what Exxon Mobil has done, breaking its own record and posting a profit of $45.2 billion, despite fourth quarter earnings that were a third lower than the same period the previous year.

ExxonMobil seems to have been riding over the oil slump on increased profit margins at refuelling pumps and strong support from overseas refineries, which more than offset the sharp drop in profits it suffered from producing oil and gas.

The oil major with the most widely dispersed operations across the globe broke its own record even as oil prices soared to $147 a barrel in July (See: Record oil prices send Exxon and Shell quarterly profits to record highs) before declining steadily to less than $ 40 a barrel by the close of the year. Despite falling prices, ExxonMobil still trumped analysts by registering $7.82 billion in profits or $1.55 a share for the final quarter of the year. 

It said its bottom line had taken a hit of $3.2 billion and total production was lower because of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike in the Gulf of Mexico.

Revenues in the fourth quarter stood at $84.7 billion, down 27 per cent from a year earlier but it exceeded Wall Street estimates.