That is much higher than the EIA forecast in January for $850 billion in OPEC earnings this year.
On a per-capita basis, OPEC's oil export revenue will jump 43 percent in 2008 to $1,636, said the EIA, which is the US Energy Department's independent analytical arm.
OPEC members are spilling over with cash from strong global oil demand and skyrocketing crude prices, which for US oil topped a record $112 a barrel this week.
Much of OPEC's oil will be shipped to the United States, the world's biggest crude consumer.
US oil demand is forecast to average 20.6 million barrels a day this year. US imports of OPEC oil reached 5.8 million barrels a day in January, the highest level for any month since July 1977, based on the latest EIA data.
The EIA did not make public its oil export earning estimates for individual OPEC members during 2008. But for last year the EIA said the six largest OPEC oil export earners were: Saudi Arabia ($194 billion), United Arab Emirates ($63 billion), Iran ($58 billion), Nigeria ($56 billion), Kuwait ($55 billion) and Algeria ($50 billion).
11/25/2008
My comment abut the following item:
According to The president, we are at war. Profiteering during war
time was a crime and was punished during World War II. Why isn't it
a crime today?
20% of the profits of US oil companies in this country, and abroad,
should be granted to furthering education in this country. Another
20% should be granted to help the people (not the governments) of
other countries.
Exxon shatters profit records
Oil giant makes corporate history by booking $11.7 billion in quarterly profit; earns $1,300 a second in 2007.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Exxon Mobil made history on Friday by reporting the highest quarterly and annual profits ever for a U.S. company, boosted in large part by soaring crude prices.
Exxon, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, said fourth-quarter net income rose 14% to $11.66 billion, or $2.13 per share. The company earned $10.25 billion, or $1.76 per share, in the year-ago period.
The profit topped Exxon's previous quarterly record of $10.7 billion, set in the fourth quarter of 2005, which also was an all-time high for a U.S. corporation.
"Exxon can put out some amazing numbers and this is one of those cases," said Jason Gammel, senior analyst at Macquarie Securities in New York.
Exxon also set an annual profit record by earning $40.61 billion last year - or nearly $1,300 per second in 2007. That exceeded its previous record of $39.5 billion in 2006.
In the fourth quarter, the company said revenue rose 29.5% from a year ago to $116.64 billion.
Analysts were looking for the company to report quarterly profit of $10.36 billion on revenue of $114.9 billion, according to earnings tracker Thomson Financial.
Despite topping Wall Street's estimates, Exxon (XOM, Fortune 500) shares slipped in afternoon trading.
The company reported strong results in its worldwide exploration and production, or "upstream," business. Profit rose 32% to $8.2 billion during the quarter, offsetting some weakness earlier in the year.
Income in Exxon's refining, or "downstream," business rose 15.7% during the quarter to $2.27 billion.
Exxon attributed its impressive results to strong performance across its divisions, but a large part of the profit surge was underpinned by climbing oil prices.
Crude prices skyrocketed nearly 60% last year. The surge helped prices break through the $100 a barrel mark for the first time ever early last month. Since crossing that milestone, prices have eased to around $90 a barrel.
Natural gas prices also jumped last year, albeit marginally. But costs have also increased for the oil companies, which is why profits haven't risen as rapidly as crude prices.
Big oil companies that both pump oil and refine crude into gasoline have to spend more for crude but are unable to pass on all the extra cost to consumers, which eats in to gasoline profit margins.
The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline hit an all-time high of $3.23 in May, according to the motorist organization AAA. The high prices were blamed on strong demand and a series of accidents that shut down refineries in the U.S. But slack demand for gasoline in the latter half of last year kept gas prices from rising as dramatically as crude prices.
Exxon's record results, which coincide with smaller rival Chevron's (CVX, Fortune 500) profit jump, drew some fire from both government officials and consumer rights groups, who have argued previously that the the oil industry is deliberately restricting supply and profiting on the back of U.S. motorists.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. took a swipe at the two firms, calling on fellow lawmakers to break the country's dependence on foreign oil and rollback unnecessary tax incentives for oil companies.
Judy Dugan, research director of The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, urged Congress to initiate some oversight into unregulated energy trading markets, which have been accused of helping to drive up the price of oil.
"Exxon is happy to take advantage of these prices," said Dugan.
But finding oil has also become more costly. The oil boom has led to a surge in exploration and drilling activity, which has pushed up the price for skilled workers and equipment.
Furthermore, new supplies of oil are increasingly difficult to find and generally tend to be located in harder to reach - and hence more expensive - places. The new natural gas field discovered this week by Brazil's Petrobras lies three miles under the ocean.
ExxonMobil representatives also stressed the cyclical nature of the business and noted that growing global demand for energy will require companies to heavily invest in future growth. The company said it estimates that global demand will grow by 30 percent by 2030.
"The challenge for all of us in the industry is how to we meet that increased demand," said Henry Hubble, vice president of investor relations.
Exxon and Chevron aren't the only two oil giants to report impressive earnings recently. Conoco (COP, Fortune 500), the nation's third-largest oil company, trounced profit estimates by nearly 25% when it reported last week. And Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Europe's largest oil company, reported a 60% increase in profits Thursday.
By any measure, Exxon Mobil’s performance last year was a blowout.
The company reported Friday that it beat its own record for the highest profits ever recorded by any company, with net income rising 3 percent to $40.6 billion, thanks to surging oil prices. The company’s sales, more than $404 billion, exceeded the gross domestic product of 120 countries.
Exxon Mobil earned more than $1,287 of profit for every second of 2007.
The company also had its most profitable quarter ever. It said net income rose 14 percent, to $11.7 billion, or $2.13 a share, in the last three months of the year. The company handily beat analysts’ expectations of $1.95 a share, after missing targets in the last two quarters.
Like most oil companies, Exxon benefited from a near doubling of oil prices, as well as higher demand for gasoline last year. Crude oil prices rose from a low of around $50 a barrel in early 2007 to almost $100 by the end of the year — the biggest jump in oil prices in any one year.
The issue here is the profit figures for Exxon Mobile. This oil company has been a favorite target for leftist, anti-capitalist politicians. I'm sure you remember Hillary screeching about wanting "to take those profits" so that she could spend them.
Recap: In 2006 Exxon reported profits of $39.5 billion. Politicians went nuts. In 2007 those profits went to $40.6 billion. Politicians went nutsier.
The reason politicians can successfully demagogue these profits is that the vast majority .. and we're talking 95% and above .. of Americans couldn't tell you the difference between a profit and a profit margin if their flat screen TVs depended on it. Simply stated, profit is the total amount you make. Profit margin is how much you make on each dollar of sales. You would think that this would be taught in our government schools ... but if you did think that you would be wrong.
So ... what has been happening to Exxon's profit margin during these record profit years? Staying about the same, that's what; around 10%. The reason their profits have been increasing is because the price of crude oil has been going up ... bring gas prices up with them ... thus increasing the dollar amount of sales. Profit – up. Profit margins – 'bout the same.
By the way ... financial institutions and cosmetics companies have been enjoying higher margins ... along with many other sectors of our economy.
Now .. the numbers that I presented yesterday. Pretty eye-opening. The research was posted on the Seeking Alpha website.
Over the past three years Exxon Mobile has paid an average of $27 billion a year in taxes to the Imperial Federal Government. This has amounted to about 41% of Exxon's taxable income.
The last year for which complete numbers on who pays what taxes are available was 2004. In 2004 there were 130 million individual tax returns filed. If you take the bottom 50% of those tax returns – 65 million of them – and add up the total amount of taxes those households paid you come up with $27.4 billion. This means that one corporation, Exxon Mobile, pays as much in taxes to the federal government as do the bottom half of individual taxpayers. How's that for paying your fair share?
There's more. The Adjusted gross income for the bottom 50% of taxpayers comes out to about $922 billion. This means that these taxpayers are paying an effective tax rate of about 3% of their adjusted gross income. Exxon? Adjusted gross income of around $67.4 billion in 2006 ... for an effective tax rate of 41%.
There's the facts, my friends. If you're able to absorb them you'll see just how you're being manipulated by the likes of Hillary Clinton and other politicians. If the American voters were truly educated they couldn't get away with it for a minute.
