US oil giant ExxonMobil shook off economic troubles and hurricanes to post a record third-quarter profit of US$14.83 billion, up 58 percent from a year ago, the company said on Thursday.
The latest report pushed up profits for the first nine months of this year to US$37.4 billion, putting the biggest oil and gas company on track for another record year for earnings.
The results translated to profits of US$2.86 per share, or US$2.59 excluding special items, ahead of market expectations of US$2.39.
Revenue from July to September jumped 34 percent to US$13.73 billion, the Irvine, Texas-based company said.
Third-quarter earnings — excluding special items of US$1.45 billion — were a record US$13.38 billion, up 42 percent from the third quarter last year.
“ExxonMobil’s strong results in the third quarter of 2008 demonstrate the continued success of our disciplined business approach,” chairman Rex Tillerson said.
“Despite the continuing uncertainty in world financial markets, ExxonMobil has maintained a strong financial position,” he said.
The July to September financial results included the impacts of hurricanes Gustav and Ike, which rocked US Gulf Coast operations. Most of the operations shuttered by the storms are back on line or are in the final phases of start-up.
“We responded quickly and effectively to maximize supplies of gasoline and other products to the marketplace,” Tillerson said.
Tillerson said full-year capital and exploration investments were expected to reach some US$25 billion, in line with its guidance.
Those investments rose to US$6.9 billion in the third quarter, up 26 percent from a year ago. For the first nine months, they amounted to US$19.3 billion.
“Through these investments we continue to make a substantial contribution to employment and economic activity in the countries in which we operate,” Tillerson said.
Exxon Mobil said it bought 109 million shares of its common stock in the quarter at a cost of US$8.7 billion. Roughly US$8 billion of that amount was dedicated to reducing the number of shares outstanding; the balance was used to offset shares issued as part of the company’s benefit plans.
Shares in ExxonMobil, the biggest US company by capitalization, were down 2.2 percent at US$73.02 in afternoon trade.
Underscoring the demand worries was news that the US economy, the world’s biggest energy consumer, shrank 0.3 percent in the third quarter and appeared heading into a deep recession.
“Although consumers and politicians are likely to display outrage that Exxon is posting such massive earnings during a time of economic unrest, the company faces significant headwinds going forward,” Briefing.com analysts wrote in a client note.
“Crude oil prices are down 54 percent since July and oil production has declined, which will likely lead to lower profit and revenue in the coming quarters,” they said.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
A registered sex offender from the US who went missing after entering Taiwan has been found and would be deported in light of the risk he poses to the public, the National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday. The agency launched a search for Levi Forrest Wallace, 43, after it was informed by the American Institute of Taiwan (AIT) that he had entered Taiwan on Oct. 2 on a tourist visa. He was not on the US government’s wanted list. Wallace was sentenced to 90 days in jail with a two-year probation in 2001 after he was convicted of sexual delinquency of
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