Exxon Mobil Profit More Than Triples

Thu May 1, 2003 08:05 AM ET

NEW YORK (<a href=reuters.com>Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM.N , the world's largest publicly traded oil company, on Thursday said its first-quarter profit more than tripled, boosted by surging oil and gas prices.

The Irving, Texas, company reported first-quarter net income of $7.04 billion, or $1.05 a share, compared with net income of $2.09 billion, or 30 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter.

 RELATED ARTICLES Exxon Mobil - Venezuela Heavy Oil at Full SteamExcluding special items, Exxon posted earnings per share of 71 cents. On that basis, analysts forecast average earnings of 70 cents a share, according to research firm Thomson First Call.

Revenue rose to $63.78 billion from $43.39 billion in the prior-year quarter.

Supply concerns linked to the war in Iraq, a strike in Venezuela and civil unrest in Nigeria -- all key oil-producing nations -- sent crude oil prices up 57 percent in the first quarter, with benchmark West Texas Intermediate spot prices averaging $33.94 a barrel.

Natural gas prices more than doubled in the same period, driven by concerns about dwindling supplies and tight inventories.

As fears about major supply disruptions recede and the oil markets brace for potentially higher output from post-war Iraq, crude oil prices are likely to fall. That will temper the upstream, or exploration and production, earnings.

However, falling oil prices help reduce costs for refiners, which use crude oil to make jet fuel, heating oil and gasoline. With supplies already below five-year averages, many analysts expect prices and margins for oil products to remain high.

Shares of Exxon Mobil, a component of the Dow Jones industrial average, closed Wednesday trade on the New York Stock Exchange at $35.20. During the first quarter, the stock was relatively unchanged, slightly underperforming the Standard & Poor's Standard & Poor's Integrated Oil & Gas index .GSPOILI which increased less than 1 percent in the same period.