The high prices for crude oil and natural gas helped give Exxon Mobil the greatest ever quarterly profit for a US company, nearly 6.5 billion euros. The results easily beat Wall Street’s forecasts capping an exceptional earnings year for the Texas based company.

Exxon’s earnings last year were almost 230 billion euros, that is higher than the gross domestic product of countries such as Austria and Indonesia. For the whole of 2004, the energy giant’s profit rose 18% to almost 19.5 billion euros. The rise in prices was not the only factor. Refining margins were also strong and profit from refining and marketing operations tripled in the fourth quarter. At the end of the third quarter, Exxon Mobil and BP were in a dead heat for being the world’s top publicly traded oil company by revenue. BP is scheduled to report earnings on 8th February.

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