The Inside Scoop on How ExxonMobil Achieved Its Highest Profit in History
ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) produced a prodigious profit last year. The oil giant tallied $55.7 billion of earnings in 2022, the most money ever earned by a Western oil company. It smashed Exxon's prior record of $45 billion in 2008.
The oil company's historic profits have been called "outrageous" by the Biden administration. While it might be easy to criticize the oil company for cashing in while consumers felt pain at the pump, it's important to know what fueled the oil company's monster profit last year. On Exxon's fourth-quarter conference call, CEO Darren Woods provided an inside look into what helped Exxon deliver its historic profit.
Woods stated the obvious on the call, noting that "of course, our results clearly benefited from a favorable market." Oil and gas prices were much higher last year, fueled partly by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Demand was also strong as the global economy continued to recover from the pandemic. That created an undersupplied market as oil companies struggled to produce enough to meet demand, which drove up prices.
Source Fool.com
