Tuesday, August 5, 2008

ExxonMobil Profits Evil?

Sunday evening while driving to my parents house I listened to a local talk show. The host is rather intelligent, although I disagree with him 90% of the time. His guest was there to talk about evil ExxonMobil and their record profits. He stated several "facts:"
  1. EM spent none of their profit on exploration for new oil,
  2. EM spent none of their money on developing renewable resources,
  3. EM should pay a "wind fall" profit tax,
  4. It is especially heinous that EM spent $8 billion of their profit on stock buy back
Hillary Clinton stated: "There is something seriously wrong with our economy when Exxon's record $11 billion in quarterly profits are seen as a disappointment by Wall Street."

The reality?
  • EM made a near record $10.89 billion in its first quarter (analyst expected $11.5 billion)
  • EM paid a combined $29.3 billion in taxes and royalties ($17.7 billion in taxes and $11.6 billion in royalties) - taxes were 49% of income.
  • EM spent $5.5 billion (before profit, of course) to develop new sources of oil, up 30% from last year
  • EM, and most oil majors, have an internal rate of return on investment of <15%. My chemical plant would be shut down for doing that poorly.

1 comment:

Eric and Anida said...
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