Higher Prices, Tax Gain Lift Exxon Mobil (Thanks George)

[joeunderdog]

40 minutes ago Add Business - Reuters to My Yahoo!

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil company, on Thursday said fourth-quarter profit rose more than 60 percent on soaring oil and gas prices, a big tax gain and a rebound in chemical earnings.


Global tensions, rising demand and worries about low inventories helped boost crude oil prices by 11 percent and natural gas prices by 16 percent rise in the quarter.


snip

The biggest surprise in the earnings report was Exxon Mobil's massive chemicals business, where profit surged to $476 million from $76 million a year earlier amid wider margins, lower costs and the favorable impact of a weaker dollar. It was the segment's best performance in five years, the company said.


On Wednesday a federal judge ordered Exxon Mobil to pay $4.5 billion in punitive damages, plus $2.25 billion in interest, for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. The company said it would challenge the award.


more...
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=568&ncid=749&e=1&u=/nm/20040129/bs_nm/energy_exxon_earns_dc

In other news...President Bush's re-election campaign fund got a shot in the arm from it's most generous contributer...No, no relation.