NEW YORK - EXXONMOBIL reported the largest United States corporate annual profit in history at US$40.6 billion (S$57.4 billion), benefiting from surging crude oil prices on strong demand, particularly in China and India.

The net profit was three per cent higher than a year ago when the biggest US oil and gas firm reported a 2006 annual profit of US$39.5 billion, which had prompted ire over US policies said to favour big oil firms.

The multinational behemoth also posted a record fourth-quarter net profit, at US$11.6 billion, up 14 per cent from the same period in 2006 as gains in crude.

Full-year sales climbed by seven per cent to US$404.5 billion, driven by a 29 per cent spike in the final quarter, to US$116.6 billion.

Earnings per share jumped by 10 per cent to US$7.28 from 2006, reflecting a programme of share buybacks, the Irving, Texas-based company said in a statement.

Full-year dividends increased by seven per cent to US$1.37.

The company distributed US$35.6 billion to shareholders in 2007 through dividends and share purchases to reduce shares outstanding, up US$3.0 billion from 2006.

'Higher crude oil and natural gas realisations and gains on asset sales were partly offset by lower chemical margins,' ExxonMobil's chairman Rex Tillerson said.

The company's fourth-quarter and full-year earnings included a special tax-related benefit of US$410 million. They did not include exceptional elements, unlike the 2006 results.

'Exxon's success may draw criticism from consumer groups,' said Mr Jeffrey Ham, an analyst at Briefing.com.

'In the past, consumers have been astonished by the billions in reported oil profits and multimillion-dollar payouts to oil executives, all while paying several dollars per gallon for gasoline.'

ExxonMobil's Tillerson said the company was pursuing a 'long-term investment programme, in projects often far from major consuming nations', to provide 'resources essential to the increasingly interdependent global energy supply network'.

The company spent US$20.9 billion on capital and exploration projects in 2007, an increase of five per cent from 2006.

In the fourth quarter, capital and exploration spending jumped 21 per cent to US$6.2 billion from the same period in 2006.

The record profits came despite a slight fall in production that was offset by soaring crude prices underpinned by global economic growth driven by powerful expansion in emerging-market economies such as China and India.

Production decreased by one per cent in 2007 from the prior year on an oil-equivalent basis, the company said. -- AFP

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