Exxon Breaks Own Profit Record With $45B Haul

The oil behemoth shattered the annual profit record despite slow fourth quarter
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jan 30, 2009 8:13 AM CST
Exxon Breaks Own Profit Record With $45B Haul
In this 2005 file photo, a sports utility vehicle drives past an ExxonMobil refinery in Baytown, Texas.   (AP Photo/File)

Buoyed by last year's spike in crude prices, Exxon Mobil Corp. today reported a profit of $45.2 billion for 2008, breaking its own record for a US company, even as its fourth-quarter earnings fell 33%  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. Prices have fallen roughly 70% since then, tumbling 60% in the fourth quarter alone amid a deepening global economic crisis. Exxon’s net income slid to $7.8 billion in the October-December period, compared to $11.7 billion in the same period a year ago. (More Exxon Mobil stories.)

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