For big energy companies like Exxon Mobil, finding more natural resources to dig out of the ground is a challenge. When the price for those resources is high, it helps overcome that hurdle.
That was the case in the fourth quarter, when Exxon reported profits that were up 2% from a year earlier, to $9.4 billion. For the full year 2011 earnings were up 35% to $41.1 billion, �reflecting higher crude oil and natural gas realizations,� the company�s Chairman and Chief Executive Rex Tillerson said.
Fourth-quarter earnings per share of $1.97 were up 6% from a year ago and two cents better than the Street�s consensus estimate.Revenue of $121.6 billion was also up from 2010 and better than expected.
Like rivals including Chevron, Exxon�s downstream, or refining, business was weaker than its upstream, or exploration, business. (See �Chevron�s Downstream Trouble.�)
Upstream earnings were up 18% to $8.8 billion, while downstream results dove 63% to $425 million driven by weaker refining margins. The company reported production was down 9% from the similar quarter a year ago on an oil-equivalent basis, and down 4% when �excluding the impacts of entitlement volumes, OPEC quota effects and divestments.�
Exxon was the high bidder on leases for 50 blocks in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the company. Exploration and production in the Gulf is slowly returning after a moratorium in the wake of the BP oil spill of 2010.
Shares of Exxon were down 1.1% Tuesday morning. Chevron was up 0.7%, while ConocoPhillips, which is in the process of spinning off its downstream assets, inched up 0.2%, and Marathon Oil, which already did so, added 0.8%
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