Exxon released their
quarterly report today, posting the second highest quarterly profit of any company ever in the history of time with $10.49 billion in earnings.
They only have been outdone by themselves, when in the fourth quarter of 2005 they pulled in $10.71 billion.
Exxon has a good chance of beating that in the final quarter and that'll put them over the $40 billion mark for the year.
Royal Dutch Shell:
reported third-quarter profit jumped 21 percent, more than analysts estimated, because of rising production and higher crude prices.
The shares gained the most in five months after Shell, based in The Hague, said today that profit climbed to $7.03 billion
In other news, it is estimated that
1.5 million tons of oil, or FIFTY times what the Valdez spilled off the shores of Alaska, has been spilled in the Niger Delta over the last 50 years:
A panel of independent experts who travelled to the increasingly tense and lawless region said damage to the fragile mangrove forests over the past 50 years was tantamount to a catastrophic oil spill occurring every 12 months in what is one of the world's most important ecosystems.
As well as threatening rare species including primates, fish, turtles and birds, the pollution is destroying the livelihoods of many of the 20 million people living there, damaging crops and fuelling the upsurge in violence, it was claimed.
The Delta is home to 7,000sq km of the continent's remaining 9,000sq km of mangrove and scientists believe some 60 per cent of West Africa's fish stocks breed in the rivers and swamps along the coast.
Want to know something fucked up?
From 1958 to 2003, according to the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Nigeria produced a total of 22.8 billion barrels of oil. According to Shell, on average, 1,000 cubic feet of gas is flared per barrel of oil. The total gas flared - roughly 22.8 trillion cubic feet - is slightly more than the UK's total natural gas reserves in the North Sea in 2004.source: The Next Gulf: London, Washington and Oil Conflict in Nigeria, pg. 67
Please visit Chris Hondros' site and view his photographs of the gas flares in Nigeria.
As the world's leading consummer of petroleum products we have the responsibility to ensure that the oil we use
1) Does not destroy the enviroment it is drilled from
2) Does not enable oppressive regimes to foster inequity among the people
I believe stringent regulation of oil companies and an overhaul of our energy policies should be an essential platform of a Democrat run Congress.
The current path is absolutely destructive. And the profits are a disgrace.