Oil price jump fuels Exxon profit

The world's biggest oil firm raked in a third-quarter net profit of $10.5bn (£5.6bn), up nearly 6% from the same period in 2005.

Oil prices reached a record £78.40 in early June and stayed at over $70 a barrel for much of the period before dipping to about $60 in September.

Meanwhile, production rose about 7% to four million barrels of oil a day.

"Anything over 3% [production growth] is good, and anything over 5% is outstanding," said Gene Pisasale, senior energy analyst at Mercantile Trust.

"For a company like Exxon to perform at that level is really superb."

The $10.5bn profit was the second-largest quarterly profit ever recorded by a publicly-traded US firm.

The biggest quarterly profit came in the final quarter of 2005, when Exxon earned $10.7bn.


Source: BBC News

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