IRVING, Texas (AFP) - Surging crude prices helped lift the profit of ExxonMobil, the world's biggest oil company, which reported a 56 percent rise in net earnings from a year ago to 5.68 billion dollars.
Excluding a charge of 550 million dollars to account for a class-action judgment against the company, Exxon earned 6.23 billion dollars, a record for the company.
The net profit amounted to 88 cents a share, a penny better than expected on Wall Street.
Revenues jumped 28 percent from a year earlier to 76.37 billion dollars.
By segment, upstream earnings rose by 1.23 billion dollars over the third-quarter of 2003 to 3.929 billion dollars on the strength of oil and gas prices.
"Plans for long-term capacity remain on track as reflected by continued high levels of capital spending," chairman Lee Raymond said.
Refining and marketing earnings rose by 490 million dollars from the year-ago quarter to 1.4 billion dollars, due to better refining conditions worldwide.
Chemical earnings rose to 1.01 billion dollars, an increase of 779 million from the third quarter of 2003.
During the quarter, the company bought back 65 million shares at a cost of 3.01 billion dollars.
10/28/2004 - 14:31 GMT - AFP