Exxon Mobil Corp has reported second-quarter earnings of $US11.68 billion ($A12.38 billion), the biggest profit from operations ever by any US corporation, but the results were well short of Wall Street expectations and its shares fell.
The world's largest publicly traded oil company said net income for the April-June period came to $US2.22 a share, up from $US10.26 billion, or $US1.83 a share, a year ago.
Revenue rose 40 per cent to $US138.1 billion from $US98.4 billion in the year-earlier quarter.
Excluding an after-tax charge of $US290 million related to an Exxon Valdez court settlement, earnings amounted to $US11.97 billion, or $US2.27 per share.
Analysts on average expected Exxon Mobil to earn $US2.52 a share on revenue of $US144 billion, according to a survey by Thomson Financial. The estimates typically exclude one-time items.
The record-setting results were largely expected, given that crude prices in the second quarter were nearly double what they were a year ago. Natural gas prices were significantly higher too.
But investors expected even bigger profits Thursday, especially after Europe's Royal Dutch Shell reported a 33 per cent jump in second-quarter earnings to $US11.6 billion, which fell just shy of Exxon's own record earnings from 2007.
Exxon Mobil shares fell $US2.81, or 3.3 per cent, to $US81.57 in morning trading.
Setting US profit records has become commonplace for Irving-based Exxon Mobil. The $US11.68 billion topped its own US record of $US11.66 billion, posted in the fourth quarter of last year. Right behind that was the $US10.9 billion it reported to start 2008.
Exxon Mobil owns the record for at least the top six most-profitable quarters for a US company, as well as the largest annual profit.
The company, which produces three per cent of the world's oil, got its biggest boost from its exploration and production arm, where earnings rose 68 per cent to $US10.01 billion from $US5.95 billion a year ago. The main driver was record crude prices, partially offset by lower sales volumes and higher operating costs.
Once again, Exxon Mobil's results revealed a troubling trend at the heart of its business.
Production on an oil-equivalent basis fell eight per cent from a year ago - a significant blow for a company that generates more than two-thirds of its earnings from oil and gas production. That follows an opening quarter of 2008 when the company said overall production fell 5.6 per cent from a year ago.
Excluding last year's loss of its Venezuelan assets, a Labor strike in Nigeria and lower volumes because of production-sharing contracts, Exxon said production was down about three per cent in the most-recent quarter.
Like its competitors, Exxon Mobil said it took a beating from lower global refining margins. Earnings from refining and marketing fell 54 per cent in the quarter to $US1.55 billion.
For the first six months of 2008, Exxon Mobil said it earned $US22.57 billion, or $US4.25 a share, from $US19.54 billion, or $US3.45 a share, in the first half of 2007. Revenue rose to $US254.9 billion from $US185.5 billion.
