The top five oil companies earned $36 Billion in one quarter. All these profits are still only about 6 to 8 % of sales which is below the average of major corporations. Taxes paid are $20 to $30 billion.
Petroleum shares end the month of April ahead by nearly 3%, including a healthy gain on Friday. See: Energy Stocks add gains to April’s rise.
The positive move in recent days came as major energy companies’ earnings often beat analyst expectations, sending shares up despite a proposal by the Obama administration to rescind billions in energy company tax breaks. See story about tax breaks for oil companies.
Running down the sector’s list of bottom-line growth, Exxon Mobil Corp.’s /quotes/comstock/13*!xom/quotes/nls/xom XOM -1.91% profit swelled by 69% to $10.7 billion; Royal Dutch Shell’s /quotes/comstock/13*!rds.a/quotes/nls/rds.a RDS.A -1.87% profit jumped 60% to $8.8 billion; BP PLC’s /quotes/comstock/13*!bp/quotes/nls/bp BP -2.58% net income rose 17% to $7.1 billion; Chevron Corp.’s /quotes/comstock/13*!cvx/quotes/nls/cvx CVX -2.43% earnings advanced 36% to $6.2 billion; and ConocoPhillips /quotes/comstock/13*!cop/quotes/nls/cop COP -4.40% profit widened by 44% to $3 billion.
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