May 19 (Bloomberg) -- Take away Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips and profits at U.S. companies are the worst in at least a decade. Without the $70 billion that oil producers earned in the last two quarters, profits at companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index tumbled 26 percent and 30.2 percent, the biggest decreases for any quarter since Bloomberg started compiling data in 1998. Energy companies made up almost half the income growth reported by S&P 500 companies in the first three months of 2008 as oil prices surged past $100 per barrel, the data show.
Without the $70 billion that oil producers earned in the last two quarters, profits at companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index tumbled 26 percent and 30.2 percent, the biggest decreases for any quarter since Bloomberg started compiling data in 1998. Energy companies made up almost half the income growth reported by S&P 500 companies in the first three months of 2008 as oil prices surged past $100 per barrel, the data show.
Energy companies globally are spending a record $369 billion on exploration and production in 2008, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. estimates. The cost to find and develop a barrel of oil quadrupled to $18 last year from $4 in 2000. Even so, output from outside the 13 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will meet only about 20 percent of the growth in world demand in the next four years, according to the International Energy Agency in Paris.
Even so, output from outside the 13 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will meet only about 20 percent of the growth in world demand in the next four years, according to the International Energy Agency in Paris.
