tagged w/ Gasoline stations
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Rising Oil Prices Swell Profits at Exxon and Shell
Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, reported on Thursday that second-quarter income rose 14 percent, to $11.68 billion, the highest-ever for an American company.
Net income of $2.22 a share compared with $10.26 billion, or $1.83 a share, in the quarter a year ago.
Revenue rose 40 percent, to $138.1 billion, from $98.4 billion in the quarter a year ago.
Excluding an after-tax charge of $290 million tied to an Exxon Valdez court settlement, earnings were $11.97 billion, or $2.27 a share.
Excluding one-time charges, analysts had expected Exxon Mobil to earn $2.52 a share on revenue of $144 billion, according to Thomson Financial.
With this quarter’s result, Exxon topped its own record of $11.66 billion in the fourth quarter of last year.
Earlier in London, Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s largest oil company, reported a 33 percent increase in second-quarter profit on Thursday, helped by a higher oil price even as production declined.
Like a smaller rival BP earlier this week, Shell profited from an oil price that almost doubled in the second quarter from the year earlier, but a 13 percent drop from a record on July 11 raised some concern among investors about whether oil companies can keep up the pace of earnings growth. BP said earlier this week that higher oil prices have started to affect consumer demand for gasoline.
Shell’s profit rose to $11.56 billion from $8.67 billion in the period a year ago. BP reported a 28 percent increase in profit earlier this week and the Italian oil company Eni said on Thursday that profit in the second quarter rose 52 percent.
...Rising Oil Prices Swell Profits at Exxon and Shell
Exxon Mobil, the world’s... more
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Nearly half of the gasoline stations in the northern province of Catalonia were out of fuel Tuesday morning, and the regional government sent an emergency convoy of 20 trucks to replenish their tanks.
Three automotive plants - one each operated by Nissan, Mercedes Benz and SEAT - said they were suspending operations because of a lack of spare parts. Vendors warned of shortages in fruit, vegetables and meat at the sprawling wholesale market in Madrid - Mercamadrid - if the strike continued.
Around major cities Tuesday, traffic continued to crawl behind the so-called "snail protests" of slow-moving trucks.
Television news reports showed ships in the Balearic Islands marooned in port for lack of fuel and cargo. In the northern province of Galicia and southern ports of Andalucía, the truckers' strike, coupled with a fishing strike, left docks and fish stalls barren. Wholesale markets were surrounded by protesters. And shoppers were hoarding staples.
So far the administration of Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has offered a package of measures to ease the impact of higher fuel prices on small businesses, including lower social security contributions and subsidies of €55 million, or $87 million, to older truckers who choose to abandon the industry. But Somoza said the truckers considered those measures insufficient. They are seeking government regulations guaranteeing a minimum price for their services, above fuel costs.
The picture is not supposed to go with this link. Sorry about that.
Nearly half of the gasoline stations in the northern province of Catalonia were out of... more
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