It appears that Big Oil has kicked up yet another gusher. This one, thank goodness, is better than benign.
ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM ) , the biggest of Big Oil, has checked in with quarterly earnings of $7.56 billion, or $1.60 per share. Excluding a $140 million special charge, last year's results included earnings of $3.95 billion, or $0.81 per share. That, if you're keeping track, is a 91% jump on the earning line. Quarterly revenue grew by 24% to $92.5 billion, and the company handily beat the analysts' consensus estimate of $1.46 in per-share earnings.
As expected, Exxon benefited from a combination of higher crude prices, stronger refinery margins, and a $1 billion jump in the contribution from chemical operations. Just as importantly, its oil equivalent volumes increased by 8% from a year ago.
But as with people, some companies seem to have all the luck. Unlike forlorn BP (NYSE: BP ) , or even Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-A ) , and despite its size and geographic spread, Exxon conducts a minimal amount of its operations in the Gulf of Mexico. Indeed, while the moratorium has resulted in the suspension of a couple of its Gulf projects, Exxon can point to places like Iraq's West Qurna-1 field, the Turkish Black Sea, the Sulu Sea offshore Indonesia, and Qatar as objects of much of its attention.
Despite its low representation in the Gulf, however, Exxon is leading an industry effort to foster prevention, well intervention, and spill response to potential deepwater blowouts in the Gulf. This month, along with ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP ) , Chevron (NYSE: CVX ) , and others it announced plans to build a rapid-response system to deal quickly with such potential tragedies.
Easily the company's major accomplishment in the quarter was the completion of its XTO acquisition. With the 45 trillion cubic feet of gas it acquired (at less than $1 per thousand cubic feet), Exxon was immediately catapulted into the top spot among gas producers in the United States. Indeed, it's something of a kick to hear it now talking about its activities in the Marcellus and Haynesville, shale plays once dominated by the likes of Chesapeake (NYSE: CHK ) and Devon Energy (NYSE: DVN ) .
Finally, successful downstream operations also boosted Exxon, with an earnings increase of $710 million. And there was also tangible progress for an algae biofuels partnership in which Exxon is involved.
So, I've said it before, and I'll say it again: It's awfully tough to get up early enough to top Exxon as a Big Oil opportunity.
RSS Headlines
Fool UK