JULY 29, 2010, 2:31 P.M. ET.

CORRECT: Exxon 2Q Profit Soars 91% On Rebounding Prices, Margins

By Isabel Ordonez and Tess Stynes Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

HOUSTON (Dow Jones)--Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) said Thursday its second-quarter earnings jumped 91% helped by higher commodity prices and a surge in refining profits and production.

Exxon Mobil reported a profit of $7.56 billion, or $1.60 a share, up from $3.95 billion, or 81 cents, a year earlier. Revenue rose 24% to $92.48 billion. The results widely beat analyst expectations of $1.46 mainly due to lower corporate charges and better-than-expected results in the downstream business, which purchases crude oil and refining it into useful products such as gasoline and diesel.

Exxon Mobil's results ends a string of quarters in which the oil giant fell shy of analysts expectations. They also illustrate the rebound of the refining business, which was badly hurt last year by a decline in fuel demand caused by the economic downturn. Refining margins has slowly improved as the economy has recovered, boosting earnings of companies with large downstream operations. Exxon's smaller rival ConocoPhillips's (COP) said Wednesday its second-quarter earnings tripled and Chevron Corp. (CVX) is also expected to post substantially higher earnings Friday.

"Exxon showed improvements across-the-board but its refining results were particularly strong," says Fadel Gheit, analyst at Oppenheimer & Co.

Earnings at the company's oil-and-gas production segment increased 40% to $5.3 billion. The Irving, Texas-based company said oil-equivalent production increased by 8% over the second quarter of 2009 driven by startups of liquefied-natural-gas projects in Qatar. Excluding the impacts of production sharing contracts, quotas imposed by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and divestments, Exxon's production was up about 10%.

Refining and marketing profit more than doubled on higher margins.

Exxon spent another $1 billion in share buybacks during the quarter, reducing stock outstanding by 24 million shares. There are some 4.73 billion shares outstanding.

Shares were up 1% at $61.50 in premarket trading. The stock through Wednesday was down 10% this year.

-By Isabel Ordonez and Tess Stynes, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2481; Tess.Stynes@dowjones.com

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