Exxon Mobil Corp, the world's largest investor-owned oil company, on Thursday said fourth-quarter profit rose more than 60 percent thanks to soaring oil and natural gas prices and a huge tax gain.
The Irving, Texas, company reported net income of $6.65 billion, or $1.01 a share, including a gain of $2.23 billion from the settlement of a long-running US tax dispute.
A year earlier it posted net income of $4.09 billion, or 60 cents a share, after merger costs and results from sold-off Chilean copper mines.
Excluding one-time items, earnings rose to $4.42 billion, or 68 cents a share, from $3.79 billion, or 56 cents a share, a year earlier.
Revenue rose 17 percent to $66.0 billion, driven largely by sharply higher commodity prices. Global tensions, rising demand and worries about low inventories supported an 11 percent increase in crude oil prices and a 16 percent rise in average benchmark gas prices in the quarter. Oil and gas production fell 0.6 percent in the period, to 4.41 million barrels per day.
Capital and exploration expenditures rose 8 percent to $4.36 billion.
On Wednesday a federal judge ordered Exxon Mobil to pay $4.5 billion in punitive damages, plus $2.25 billion in interest, for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. The company said it would challenge the award.