Exxon-Mobil, Oil and Iraq.

The Clown Man

On reading the headline on RTE.ie about Exxon Mobils recent world record profits this morning I could only balk at the extent to which anti-war protestors and political cynics seem to have hit the nail right on the head with regard to the now seemingly obvious reasons why America went to war with Iraq.

A massively sanctioned and relatively quiet albeit once renegade state feels the wrath of the American military forces for what? Weapons of mass destruction? I think anyone who took a moment to observe Rumsfeld's pittiful attemps to convince the UN that Iraq had WMD's would have dismissed that excuse entirely from the start. I know I did.

Meanwhile, cynics and activists scream "OIL!" and the world continually refuses to believe that Bush would actually wage war on Iraq to boost his buddies (and main political financiers) company profits. The Bush administration might be a bit crazy but they're not that bad.

Anyway, in my follow up browsing I came across this selection of bbc.co.uk news reports which would have been quite interesting at the time but hindsight seems to make them even more so:

January 2001: Exxon Mobil, the world's biggest oil company, has announced record fourth-quarter profits of $5.12bn compared with $2.7bn the previous year.
The US oil giant attributes the huge growth in profits to soaring oil and gas prices.

And full-year profits climbed to $17bn, hitting a world record.

The September 2000 fuel crisis actually boosts profits to a record level for oil companies. Texaco also doubles profits for the last quarter mainly due to rising oil prices attributed to the crisis.

January 2003: Surging oil and gas prices have boosted profits at ExxonMobil, the world's biggest oil company.
Profits in the fourth quarter soared 50% to $4.09bn (£2.5bn), beating analyst expectations.

An impending war on Iraq sees oil prices soar as Exxon Mobil strikes it rich again.

May 2003: Exxon Mobil, the world's biggest oil company, has announced a threefold jump in profits, crediting a sharp rise in global crude oil prices.

The war on Iraq has started.

January 2005: US oil giant Exxon Mobil made a record $25.3bn (£13.4bn; 19.4bn euros) profit in 2004 as it benefited from the surge in crude oil prices.

Exxon Mobil's profits rose to $25.33bn from $21.51bn last year, on revenues up 17% to $298bn.

Iraqi occupation continues and prices continue to rise.

Febraury 2005: US oil giant Exxon Mobil has overtaken General Electric as the world's most valuable public company.
The firm, which last month made a record $25.3bn (£13.4bn; 19.4bn euros) profit for 2004, has been buoyed by rising profits from booming oil prices.

Imagine.

January 2006: Surging oil and gas prices have helped Exxon Mobil to unveil the highest quarterly profits reported by a publicly-traded US company.
Fourth-quarter earnings jumped to $10.7bn (£6bn) from $8.4bn in the same period last year.

The results drove Exxon's annual profit to $36.13bn - 42% up on last year.

A few days ago.

So since Bush came to power with the help of his Texan oil friends Exxon-Mobil have increased profits from $17bn in 2000 to $36.13bn in 2005 and become the worlds most valuable company.

Incredible.

I have to say that it is very difficult to see through all this without suspecting some link between Iraq and the pockets of Bush's main campaign funders.

Troubling times and a troubled world is all I can say.

ShayHT

And Shell have just posted the highest profits in UK corporate history.

And us mugs are paying ridiculous money for petrol...

Suff

Oil prices are high because of the hugh tax tag set by the goverment
the head of OPEC Sheikh Ahmad Fahd Alsabah asked the Goverments of the EU to reuce the tax price as they are making more money on Oil than OPEC!
they are the reason for the constant increase the Oil prices.

Wibbs

Yea, one of the usual things is to blame the OPEC lads for a lot of this, but I've read the same thing Suff's talking about. Either way, from the ME to here we're being screwed by a bunch of someones.