Exxon Mobil sets record with $45.2 billion profit

[January 30, 2009]  HOUSTON (AP) -- Exxon Mobil is reporting a profit of $45.2 billion for 2008, breaking its own record for full-year earnings by a U.S. company, but fourth-quarter profits tumbled 33 percent.

The fourth-quarter decline is not a surprise with oil's swift 60 percent plunge in the final three months of the year.

The previous record for annual profit was $40.6 billion, which Exxon Mobil set in 2007.

Crude prices began the year by passing the $100 mark and by July neared $150 per barrel. Since then, however, prices have fallen roughly 70 percent amid a deepening global economic crisis.

[Associated Press; By JOHN PORRETTO]

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