[News] Mission Accomplished: Exxon Mobil Posts $39.5 Billion Profit in 2006

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://www.aljazeerah.info/Editorials/2007%20Editorials/Mission%20Accomplished%20Exxon%20Mobil%20Posts%20$39.5%20Billion%20Profit%20in%202006%20By%20Hassan%20El-Najjar.htm

Mission Accomplished: Exxon Mobil Posts $39.5 Billion Profit in 2006

By Hassan El-Najjar

Al-Jazeerah, February 1, 2007



Researchers and students of the US foreign policy should notice this 
news and reference it as support for their hypotheses about why Bush 
was adamant to invade and occupy Iraq.

War creates chaos and insecurity in the crude oil market, which leads 
to the skyrocketing of prices. Ultimately, the unprecedented high 
prices fill the coffers of the owners of the oil industry with 
trillions of dollars.*

When Bush Sr. decided to go to war to evict Iraqis from Kuwait in 
1991, rejecting all peace initiatives for a peaceful Iraqi 
withdrawal, the prices of crude oil were $13 per barrel. Last year, 
his son's policies escalated them to over $75 per barrel.

Now, the prices are as low as $50 per barrel, in order to allow New 
York Merchandise Exchange to buy contracts with low prices. They will 
waiting for a politically-orchestrated event, which will be used as 
an artificial pretext to allow prices to skyrocket back to $75 per 
barrel or higher, so they can sell their contracts then reaping 
hundreds of billions of dollars, and so on and so forth.*

The succors of course have no clue about this 
politically-orchestrated cycle of oil prices. They will still be 
talking about Sunni-Shi'i sectarian violence, the Iranian threat, and 
the new brilliant general who will bring us victory with his 
counter-insurgency plan!

The same argument applies to the military industry, which has been 
the main beneficiary of the war. Bush and his rubber-stamp Congress, 
with its supporting or non-binding resolutions, borrowed $3 trillion 
from the wealthy upper class and international investors to spend on 
the military and security industries in the previous six years.

Apparently, the true mission of the US ruling class, in the last six 
years, has been forcing the American people to give more than $3 
trillion to the owners of the military and oil industries.

That was simple and clear.

Thus, when Bush celebrated his achievement and his great service to 
the military and oil industries, in May 2003, by writing "Mission 
Accomplished" on a US aircraft carrier, he was not hallucinating. He 
has accomplished to the military and the oil industries much beyond 
what they have dreamed about.

So, We, the People, let's rejoice and celebrate the accomplishments 
of our rulers. Let's not worry and be happy.

Long Live Carlyle!

Long Live Haliburton!

Long Live Exxon and its Seven Sisters!

Long Live American Democracy!

------------

For a background, see:

* 
<http://www.aljazeerah.info/Editorials/2007%20Editorials/../2006%20Editorials/September/Lowered%20Oil%20and%20Gas%20Prices%20Stage%20Three%20of%20the%20Bush%20October%20Surprise%20By%20Hassan%20El-Najjar.htm>Lowered 
Oil and Gas Prices: Stage Three of the Bush October Surprise

** 
<http://www.aljazeerah.info/Editorials/2007%20Editorials/../2006%20Editorials/July/Oil%20Prices%20Settle%20at%20$77%20a%20Barrel,%20This%20Time%20Caused%20By%20Israeli%20Attacks%20on%20Lebanon%20By%20Hassan%20El-Najjar.htm>Oil 
Prices Settle at $77 a Barrel, This Time Caused By Israeli Attacks on Lebanon

***

AP Headline: Exxon Mobil posts record annual profit

By JOHN PORRETTO AP Business Writer

Feb 1, 2007, 9:47 AM EST

HOUSTON (AP) --

Oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp. on Thursday posted the largest annual 
profit by a U.S. company - $39.5 billion - even as earnings for the 
last quarter of 2006 declined 4 percent.

The 2006 profit topped Exxon Mobil's own previous record of $36.13 
billion set in 2005.

Revenue at the world's largest publicly traded oil company rose to 
$377.64 billion for the year, surpassing the record $370.68 billion 
Exxon posted in 2005.

"Exxon Mobil continued to leverage its globally diverse resource base 
to bring additional crude oil and natural gas to market," Rex W. 
Tillerson, chairman of the Irvin, Texas-based company, said in a statement.

Exxon Mobil's record annual earnings followed a year of 
extraordinarily high energy prices as crude oil topped $78 a barrel 
in the summer - driving up average gasoline prices in the United 
States to more than $3 a gallon. Prices retreated later in the year.

The fourth-quarter decline reflects lower profits from Exxon's 
refining and marketing operations and a sharp dropoff in natural gas prices.

Results for the October-December period mimicked those of U.S. 
competitor ConocoPhillips, which last week said its fourth-quarter 
profit fell 13 percent - also primarily because of lower natural gas 
prices and refining margins. But hefty earnings earlier in the year 
helped Houston-based ConocoPhillips record its most profitable year 
on record, earning $15.55 billion.

ConocoPhillips is the nation's third-largest integrated oil company 
behind Exxon Mobil and Chevron Corp., which is scheduled to report 
2006 results Friday.

Also Thursday, Royal Dutch Shell PLC reported a 21 percent rise in 
fourth-quarter earnings, buoyed in part by high energy prices and the 
sale of some operations. Net profit came to $5.28 billion, up from 
$4.37 billion. But excluding divestitures and other one-time items, 
Shell's earnings from oil production fell 3 percent, while 
fourth-quarter sales were flat at $75.5 billion.

The company, based in Amsterdam, Netherlands, also said it had taken 
important steps to bulk up its proven reserves, which were revealed 
to have been inflated in a 2004 accounting scandal.

At Exxon Mobil, profit for the fourth quarter of 2006 declined to 
$10.25 billion from the $10.71 billion Exxon earned in the 2005 
quarter - a record quarterly profit for any U.S. public company. That 
best-ever profit came when the price of both natural gas and crude 
oil skyrocketed in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which 
damaged wells, pipelines and refineries in the key energy-producing 
Gulf of Mexico.

Analysts largely have predicted declines in fourth-quarter earnings 
for the big U.S. oil companies because of the moderation in prices.

Exxon Mobil's per-share earnings in the fourth quarter rose to $1.76 
from $1.71 as the company reduced the number of shares outstanding. 
Wall Street analysts polled by Thomson Financial had forecast 
earnings of $1.51 a share.

Excluding special items, Exxon Mobil earned $9.84 billion, or $1.69 a 
share, in the final three months of 2006.

Quarterly revenue fell to $90 billion from $99 billion in the year-ago period.

For the year, Exxon earned $6.62 per share in 2006 versus $5.71 per 
share in 2005.

Exxon shares slipped 10 cents to $74 in morning trading on the New 
York Stock Exchange. They have tarded in a 52-week range of $56.64 to $79.

---

AP Business Writer Lauren Villagran in New York and Associated Press 
Writer Toby Sterling in Amsterdam, Netherlands contributed to this report.


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