By Bill Zeeble, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-868164.mp3
Dallas, TX –
Exxon Mobil's 3rd quarter profits fell more than 60 percent after worldwide oil prices fell by about as much. KERA's Bill Zeeble has more on the Irving company's earnings.
The world's largest publicly traded oil company says it made nearly 4 and 3 quarters of a billion dollars in the 3rd quarter. That comes out to 98 cents a share, which failed to meet analysts' estimates. A year ago, Exxonmobil earned more than 8 billion dollars. But that's when a barrel of oil sold for about a hundred-47 dollars - a record high. It now sells for roughly half that.
The company was optimistic about the future though. It says it's investing 600 million dollars to research photosynthetic algae as a bio fuel and also says production rose in the quarter.