Exxon Mobil 1st-Qtr Profit Triples on Oil, Gas Prices (Update4)

By Jeffrey Tomich

Irving, Texas, May 1 (<a href=quote.bloomberg.com>Bloomberg) -- Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil company, said first-quarter profit tripled to $7.04 billion because of surging energy prices and proceeds from the sale of a German natural-gas business.

Net income was equal to $1.05 a share, compared with $2.09 billion, or 30 cents a share, in the same period of 2002, the company said in a statement. Revenue rose to $63.8 billion from $43.5 billion.

Exxon Mobil had a record quarter for profit as oil prices rose 56 percent on average and natural gas doubled. The refining business, which had a loss in the first quarter last year, earned $723 million before taxes and interest. Chemical profit surged 85 percent.

Aside from a little bit of a shortfall in production, we were pleased,'' said Gene Pisasale, senior investment officer at Wilmington Trust Co., which owns almost 10 million Exxon shares. They had strong downstream margins and chemicals were good.''

Excluding a $1.7 billion gain from the sale of Exxon Mobil's stake in German natural-gas distributor Ruhrgas AG, a $550 million benefit from an accounting change, and some merger expenses, profit was $4.79 billion, or 71 cents a share, the company said.

Analysts had expected 70 cents, based on the average estimate in a poll by Thomson Financial.

Oil Earnings

Earnings from oil and gas production doubled to a record $3.99 billion because of higher prices, the company said.

Production of oil and natural-gas liquids fell to 2.51 million barrels a day from 2.54 million barrels, the company said. Natural-gas output rose to 12 billion cubic feet a day from 11.7 billion cubic feet.

Excluding the effects of the strike in Venezuela and a restriction on Exxon Mobil's production for members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, output of oil and gas rose 2 percent, the company said.

Average crude-oil prices rose 56 percent in the quarter to $33.80 a barrel because of a strike in Venezuela, civil unrest in Nigeria and the war in Iraq. Natural gas more than doubled to $5.92 per million British thermal units as cold weather in much of the U.S. spurred demand for heating fuel.

Prices fell during March and ``are significantly lower thus far in the second quarter,'' Exxon Mobil said.

Shares of Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil fell 13 cents to $35.07 at 10:41 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, after earlier rising as much as 49 cents. The stock had fallen 12 percent in the past year.

Refining Profit

Profit from making and selling fuels such as gasoline and heating oil was $723 million compared with a $28 million loss a year ago.

Earnings from the chemicals business rose to $287 million because of favorable foreign exchange effects and improved profitability outside the U.S.

Exxon raised its quarterly dividend 8.7 percent yesterday to 25 cents a share from 23 cents. It was the first quarterly boost in the payment since 2001 for Exxon Mobil, which had $7.2 billion in cash at the end of last year.

Capital and exploration spending in the first quarter rose $522 million to $3.5 billion, Exxon Mobil said. The company also purchased 35 million shares of its stock during the quarter for $1.19 billion, or about $34 a share. Last Updated: May 1, 2003 10:41 EDT