June 2007 -- When you're already the biggest and most profitable manufacturing company in the United States, what do you do for an encore? If you're petroleum producer ExxonMobil Corp., the answer is, more of the same. After reporting net income for 2006 at a record $39.5 billion, the company is off to an even faster start in 2007, with first quarter net income at $9.3 billion, up 10% from the same period a year ago. The company also spent $4.3 billion on capital and exploration projects in first-quarter 2007.
ExxonMobil has refining operations in 26 countries and 42,000 retail service stations in more than 100 countries. The company claims that it conducts oil and gas exploration, development and production "in every major accessible producing area in the world."
In the first quarter of 2007, ExxonMobil signed contracts for the Fujian Refining and Ethylene Joint Venture Project and the Fujian Fuels Marketing Joint Venture Project. The two joint ventures, with a total investment of about $5 billion, signal ExxonMobil's interest in the burgeoning China market. Also in early 2007, ExxonMobil completed drilling the Z-11 well, which at 37,016 feet (over seven miles) is believed to be the longest measured depth extended-reach drilling (ERD) well in the world. The Z-11 is located on Sakhalin Island offshore Eastern Russia.
