From Holden:

With an Assministration formed almost exclusively of former oil industry executives who could have anticipated that the big oil companies would do so well?

Chevron Corp. on Friday reported the highest quarterly and annual profits in its 126-year history, refocusing attention on the high fuel prices that have enriched the oil company’s shareholders and exasperated consumers paying more to fill their gasoline tanks and heat their homes.

The San Ramon, Calif.-based company’s fourth-quarter earnings rose 20 percent to $4.14 billion, the most it has made in any three-month period since its inception in 1879. The performance topped the $4.13 billion earned during the second quarter of 2004 _ the early stages of a two-year boom.

Chevron’s profit of $14.1 billion for the full year also was a company record. It now has posted record annual profits in each of the last two years, earning a combined $27.4 billion.

And I mean unprecefuckingdented well!

Exxon Mobil Corp. posted record profits for any U.S. company on Monday _ $10.71 billion for the fourth quarter and $36.13 billion for the year _ as the world’s biggest publicly traded oil company benefited from high oil and gas prices and demand for refined products. The results exceeded Wall Street expectations and Exxon shares rose nearly 3 percent on premarket trading.

The company’s earnings amounted to $1.71 per share for the October-December quarter, up from $8.42 billion, or $1.30 per share, in the year ago quarter. The result topped the then-record quarterly profit of $9.92 billion Exxon posted in the third quarter of 2005.

Exxon’s profit for the year was also the largest annual reported net income in U.S. history, according to Howard Silverblatt, a stock market analyst for Standard & Poor’s. He said the previous high was Exxon’s $25.3 billion profit in 2004.