Oil giants Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell both posted hefty third-quarter earnings today after record oil prices boosted profits.
US oil company ExxonMobil shook off economic troubles and hurricanes to post a record third-quarter profit of $14.83 billion, up 58% from a year ago, the company said.
The latest report pushed up profits for the first nine months of 2008 to $37.4 billion, putting the biggest oil and gas company toward another record year for earnings.
The results translated to a profit of $2.86 per share, or $2.59 excluding special items, ahead of market expectations of $2.39.
Revenues in the July-September period jumped 34% to $13.73 billion.
Third-quarter earnings excluding special items worth $1.45 billion were a record $13.38 billion, up 42% from the 2007 third quarter.
The July-September financial results include 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.
The company endured a $50 million increase in pre-tax costs due to the hurricanes and a reduction in production of 24,000 oil equivalent barrels per day. The fallout from damage repairs and lower output was forecast to shave some $500 million dollars off fourth-quarter earnings.
Royal Dutch Shell
Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell today joined the profits bonanza from record prices with a 71% jump in third-quarter earnings.
The firm made a mammoth $10.9 billion (£6.6 billion sterling) between July and September - a period when oil prices hit a peak above $147a barrel.
The news, which is likely to spark fresh calls for a windfall tax in the UK, comes two days after rival BP posted its biggest-ever quarterly profits of $10 billion.
Royal Dutch Shell posted the huge profits - a quarterly record and equivalent to nearly £72m a day - despite a 1% fall in production compared to last year.
This was due to factors such as the impact of hurricane damage in the Gulf of Mexico, which hit refining availability, as well as maintenance work in the North Sea.
Oil prices have since fallen back to less than half their mid-July peak to trade at around $70 a barrel, as global demand fears mount.
Shell's CEO Jeroen van der Veer - who called the results satisfactory - said the company was 'robust across a wide range of oil prices'.
'We are watching the world economic situation closely,' he added.
Even stripping out over $2.8 billion (£1.7 billion) of exceptional gains from disposals and revalued oil and gas contracts, Shell's 'clean' profits of $8 billion ($4.8 billion) were well ahead of City forecasts of $7.2 billion ($4.3 billion).
Yesterday Shell named chief financial officer Peter Voser as its next chief executive. He will take over when Mr van der Veer retires at the end of June.
