Exxon sets record with $40 billion US annual profit

Exxon Mobil Corp. posted the largest annual profit by a U.S. company Friday — $40.6 billion US — as the world's biggest publicly traded oil company benefited from record-high crude prices at year's end.

Exxon also set a United States record for the biggest quarterly profit, posting net income of $11.7 billion for the final three months of 2007, beating its own mark of $10.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2005.

The previous record for annual profit was $39.5 billion, which Exxon Mobil made in 2006.

The eye-popping results weren't a surprise given record prices for a barrel of oil at the end of 2007. For much of the fourth quarter, oil hovered around $90 US a barrel, more than 50 per cent higher than a year ago.

Crude prices reached an all-time trading high of $100.09 on Jan. 3 but have fallen about 10 per cent since.

Exxon Mobil, which owns 70 per cent of Canada's largest oil producer and gasoline refiner and seller, Imperial Oil Ltd., is one of the world's biggest energy companies, with three per cent of global oil output.