This is great news in a way because I own stock . But they are making huge profits and we are all paying top dollar for gas , when its obvious they are inflating the price by huge margins.
NEW YORK - Oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp. on Thursday posted the largest annual profit by a U.S. company — $39.5 billion — even as earnings for the last quarter of 2006 declined 4 percent. The 2006 profit topped the previous record of $36.13 billion which Exxon set in 2005.
Revenue at the world's largest publicly traded oil company rose to $377.64 billion for the year, surpassing the record $370.68 billion that Exxon posted in 2005.
That is the price you pay to live in a capitolist society. The prices of oil and gas are determined by the market ( supply and demand ). The oil companies get to keep the markup.