ExxonMobil Reports Annual Profits of $25bn

US oil giant ExxonMobil sealed its status today as a supreme money-spinner by reporting annual profits that exceeded the GDP of Syria.

Exxon, the company that environmental activists love to hate, said net income in the fourth quarter increased to $8.4bn from $6.6bn a year earlier. That brought its profits for 2004 to a record $25bn, bigger than the GDP of countries such as Syria.

Exxon's bumper profits for last year came on the back of surging demand from the fast-growing economies of India and China, coupled with fears of a disruption in supplies from countries such as Russia, Iraq and Nigeria. Oil prices stayed high for much of the past year, with crude prices exceeding $55 a barrel in late October.

"Strong operational performance in all areas of our business helped ExxonMobil capture the benefits of favourable market conditions in 2004," the company said in a statement.

Exxon, based in Irving, Texas, made more in both major aspects of its business, the exploration and production of oil and gas, and the refining and selling of finished products. The impact of high oil and gas prices could be seen in the increase in profits despite a 1% decline in oil production and a 2% drop in gas production.

The chairman and chief executive, Lee Raymond, said the company "continued its active investment program" in the fourth quarter, spending $4.2bn on capital and exploration projects. That, however, was a decline from $4.3bn a year earlier.

"This is a particularly impressive set of results given that every segment outperformed expectations," Credit Suisse First Boston analysts said in a research note.

Exxon, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, just missed $300bn in sales for the year.

2004 was a good year for oil companies in general. Royal Dutch Shell is also expected to report record profits for 2004 this week, despite being hit by a reserves scandal. Forecasts put Shell's pretax profit for last year at $18bn.