Exxon Earnings Soar on Record Oil Prices

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Exxon Mobil Corp said on Friday record oil prices boosted its fourth-quarter earnings to$11.66 billion, the highest ever operating profit by a U.S. company.

Shares of the world’s largest non-government-controlled oil companyrose 1.7 percent in before-the-bell trading as the results beat WallStreet forecasts.

Net income rose nearly 14 percent from the year-earlier of $10.25 billion.

Earnings per share rose to $2.13 from $1.76 last year. Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of $1.98 per share.

"They performed across the board, upstream, downstream, U.S. andforeign," said James Halloran, who helps manage about $35 billion atNational City Private Client Group.

Revenue in the quarter rose to $116.64 billion from $90.03 billion in 2006.

Oil prices averaged more than $90 a barrel during the quarter andnearly hit $100 due to tight supplies, geopolitical risks and the weakdollar. They averaged just over $60 a barrel in the same period a yearearlier.

Profit margins from refining were relatively weak in the quarter asgasoline prices failed to keep pace with oil prices that soared torecord levels.

Since the beginning of last year, shares of Exxon are up about 13percent, underperforming the Chicago Board Options Exchange’s oilindex, which is up about 21 percent.

(Reporting by Michael Erman, editing by Dave Zimmerman)

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