Exxon Mobil Corp. posted the highest profit in its 152-year history as natural gas demand and prices surged, following similarly strong results from European peers Shell Plc and TotalEnergies SE.
Third-quarter per-share profit of $4.68 exceeded $3.89 median estimate from analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Net income of $19.7 billion surpassed the all-time high of $17.6 billion amassed during the second quarter.
Exxon and its supermajor peers are enjoying some of the highest profits in the industry’s history at a time of consumer pain from high energy prices, rampant inflation and increasingly dire warnings on climate change. Even so, oil executives are under pressure to cut emissions and improve shareholder returns, and have been hesitant to expand costly exploration programs, adding to commodity-price pressures.
Expectations among analysts rose after Exxon’s Oct. 4 trading statement said that robust natural gas prices more than offset a dip in crude markets. The strong earnings streak is expected to continue through the current quarter; Exxon is forecast to post full-year profit in excess of $50 billion -- more than Amazon.com Inc., Procter & Gamble Co., and Tesla Inc. combined.
The sheer size of Exxon’s profit -- equivalent to roughly $7 million an hour -- is sure to amplify criticism from US President Joe Biden and other leading Democrats about profiteering, particularly as war wages in Ukraine. Biden already has singled out the oil titan and Friday’s profit report comes little more than a week before Americans head to the polls.
Still, US oil supermajors are suffering less political whiplash than their European peers, which are subject to windfall profit taxes and greater calls to invest in low-carbon energy, despite some of the world’s biggest profits still being rooted in fossil fuels.
