ConocoPhillips, Hess Profits Rise as Oil Prices Surge
Net income at ConocoPhillips, the third-largest U.S. oil producer, jumped 89 percent to a record $3.8 billion, or $2.68 a share, the company said today in a statement. Amerada Hess Corp., the No. 5 U.S. oil company, said its profit rose 53 percent to $272 million, or $2.60 a share. At Kerr-McGee, net income soared 48-fold to $359 million, or $3.09 a share.
Houston-based ConocoPhillips and New York-based Hess are the first of the seven largest U.S. oil companies to report earnings for a quarter that saw crude, natural-gas and gasoline prices soar to new highs. Gas prices doubled in the quarter, and crude- oil futures traded 44 percent higher than a year earlier as demand grew, yielding windfall profits for producers.
Exxon Mobil Corp. and Marathon Oil Corp., the largest and fourth-largest U.S. oil companies, plan to report third-quarter earnings tomorrow. Chevron Corp., the No. 2 U.S. producer, is scheduled to release its report on Oct. 28.
WASHINGTON – Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday blamed Vice President Dick Cheney for bungling U.S. energy policy - and proposed a $20 billion-per-year tax on oil profits to subsidize clean-fuels development.
Tapping growing anger over skyrocketing fuel costs, Clinton (D-N.Y.) criticized oil companies for reaping billions in profits from hurricane-driven price spikes.
She also laid partial responsibility for rising prices on Cheney, the former head of industry giant Halliburton, who chaired a secretive White House energy task force in 2001. “The vice president basically sets energy policy in America,” Clinton told a meeting of alternative energy development investors. “And it’s not been to the benefit, I think, of our long-term or short-term interests, and I hope that can change.”
what? tax oil companies more just cuz they're making more money? how socialist is that?
it's capitalism at it's best.. you sell a product in demand, you set the prices.. don't like it.. don't buy it.. drive less.. conserve.. will Hillary stop using private jets and use public transporation to put her money where her loud mouth is?
It's about politics and I think people will eat it up. The price of gas is artificially high,. People can feel the pain at the pump and are now hearing about all time record profits mix that in with an administration that’s built on oil and there is going to be hell to pay.
There is a difference between being capitalist and price gouging. Current situation of high gas prices is not an example of capitalism. These oil companies have made an artificial scarcity of oil to make record profits. Not only it’s immoral but also illegal. High oil prices is not just about filling you vehicle’s gas tank at high cost but it also affects all aspects of life. This winter you’ll be paying 50% for the electricity as compare to last year. You can buy a small car and save money at the pump but what about other expenses as a result of high energy cost?
Who the oil companies trying to fool? Why these companies would research on alternative source of energy? How are they going to stay in business if people start using an alternative source instead of oil for energy consumptions. All those ads from oil companies about how much they are spending money on research on alternative fuel is a big lie.
Three separate internal confidential memos from Mobil, Chevron and Texaco have been obtained by The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights.
These memos outline a deliberate agenda to gouge prices and create artificial scarcity by limiting capacities of and outright closing oil refineries. This was a nationwide lobbying effort led by the American Petroleum Institute to encourage refineries to do this.
An internal Chevron memo states; “A senior energy analyst at the recent API convention warned that if the US petroleum industry doesn’t reduce its refining capacity it will never see any substantial increase in refinery margins.”
The Memos make clear that blockages in refining capacity and opening new refineries did not come from environmental organizations, as the oil industry claimed, but via a deliberate policy of limitation and price gouging at the behest of the oil industry itself.