High gas prices were good news once again for oil giant ExxonMobil as profits soared by 41 percent in Q3 2011, a second straight quarter of increasing profits.
Net earnings for the oil giant were up $10.33 billion, equal to $2.13 per share while sales increased to 31.5 percent over the same period in 2010, a total of $125.33 billion.
The company claimed $8.6 billion in capital expenses and exploration which took their total spent in those areas to $26.7 billion for the first nine months of the year.
In a statement about the company’s profit xxonMobil chairman Rex Tillerson said:
“We continue pursuing new opportunities to meet growing energy demand while supporting economic growth, including job creation.”
Profits over the first three quarters of 2011 are up 49 percent year-over-year taking the company’s total haul to $31.7 billion
ExxonMobil said in their financial release that their natural gas production was “about flat” while third quarter oil-equivalent production decreased by four percent from one year earlier.
In the meantime ExxonMobil recently reached a deal with Russia’s Rosneft to explore oil well production in the arctic and Black Sea areas.
ExxonMobil is also busy buying back shares, spending $5.5 billion in the third quarter with $5 billion more to be spent in the fourth quarter of 2011.
Are you surprised to learn that ExxonMobil keeps making record profits while prices at the pump continue to soar?
