Exxon, Chevron Scramble to Protect $40B Cash Booty

Company expects to get 700M barrels

(NEWSER) - Exxon announced the discovery of two oil wells and a natural gas deposit in the deep water of the Gulf of Mexico that could collectively contain 700 million barrels. Two of the finds had been made in 2009 and 2010, but the company waited until today to unveil the amount of oil inside, reports the Wall Street Journal . The third well was found after the lift of the deep-water drilling moratorium imposed following last year's Deepwater Horizon disaster. More»

It comes down to how you crunch the numbers

(NEWSER) - If you ask Exxon Mobil, the firm will say last year’s taxes exceeded US income—but a Washington think tank will tell you the big oil company didn’t pay a cent the year before that. “It all depends on how you count,” writes Steven Mufson in the Washington Post . Exxon is throwing property, gas, payroll, and state taxes into the mix; the Center for American Progress is just counting federal corporate income taxes. From that angle, the firm’s tax rate last year was 17.2%, or “lower than the average American’s,” says an analyst for the group. More»

Companies argue spill was a fluke

(NEWSER) - Lord help us if there’s another deepwater spill, because the big oil companies all have a pretty much identical response plan to BP, congressional Democrats complained today, grilling executives from Chevron, Exxon, Shell, BP, and Conoco Phillips. All the companies hired the same third party to draft their plans, the Wall Street Journal reports, and that company itself told Congress they are “cookie-cutter” documents. Ed Markey found that two of the plans “are such dead ringers for BP’s that they list a phone number for the same long-dead expert.” More»

Energy firms rise as oil adds $3.08

(NEWSER) - Stocks posted solid gains today as commodity prices rose, the Wall Street Journal reports. Oil jumped $3.08 to $71.28 a barrel and gold crossed the $1,000-an-ounce mark. Commodity-producing stocks Exxon, Chevron, and Alcoa all saw gains as a result. The Dow added 56 points to close at 9,497. The Nasdaq gained 19 points, settling at 2,038, and the S&P 500 rose 9 points to close at 1,025. More»

(NEWSER) - Stocks jumped at the open today, with the Dow up 61 points, the Nasdaq adding 0.5%, and the S&P gaining 0.7%, powered by strong moves in its energy and basic materials sectors. That was due in part to the surge in fuel prices, with oil clearing $71 a barrel. Chevron and Exxon Mobil each rose 1%. Shares in industrial companies also climbed, with Caterpillar up 1.3%. If it holds, the Dow's move will put it in positive territory for the year. More»