news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051027/ap_on_bi_ge/earns_oil
AP Exxon Mobil, Shell Post Record Profits By STEVE QUINN, Associated Press Writer 20 minutes ago DALLAS - High prices for oil and natural gas propelled Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC to their best quarterly results ever on Thursd ay, with Exxon becoming the first US company ever to ring up quarterly sales of $100 billion.
To put Exxon's performance into perspective, its third quarter revenue wa s greater than the annual gross domestic product of some of the largest oil producing nations, including the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait. Th e world's largest publicly traded oil company also set a profit record f or US companies by posting net income of almost $10 billion, according to Standard & Poor's equity market analyst Howard Silverblatt. Both Exxon and Shell said their performances were buoyed by higher crude- oil and natural-gas prices, even as output suffered due to a busy hurric ane season in the Gulf of Mexico. "We are capturing the benefits of high oil and gas prices and refining ma rgins," Shell Chief Financial Officer Peter Voser said, referring to the profit margin on each barrel of crude that is refined into gasoline, di esel and jet fuel.
However, income at the company's chemicals unit declined by $537 million to $472 million, a reflection of the higher prices for raw materials. Exxon said the hurricanes slashed US production volumes by 5 percent fr om a year ago, while global daily production slipped to 245 million bar rels of oil equivalent from 251 million barrels. By the end of the year , it will cost the company about $100 million after taxes, the company e stimated. Its chemicals business saw profits decline by $251 million to $321 million. Shell said hurricane damage would cost it about $350 million, although mu ch of the expense would be covered by insurance. said third-quarter profit more than tripled to $770 million, up from $222 million a year earlier. Most of th e profit came from its oil and natural-gas production unit.
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