Top Two Oil Companies Earn $160,000 Per Minute, Paid Low Tax Rate
The top two corporations on the Fortune 500 Global ranking, Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil, announced their 2012 second-quarter earnings today, bringing the total profits for three Big Oil companies to $44 billion for 2012 or $250,000 every day this year. Exxon profited by $16 billion this quarter, bringing its earnings for 2012 to $25 billion.
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/global500/2012/full_list/index.html
The New York Times wrote that Exxon and Shell’s earnings “disappoint,” because energy prices unexpectedly dropped for consumers this summer. Put their profits in the appropriate context, however, and Exxon and Shell still made a combined $160,000 per minute last quarter, even though the top five oil companies benefit from $2.4 billion federal tax breaks every year.
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While these companies already benefit from billions in tax breaks, Mitt Romney has offered the industry even more. A Center for American Progress Action analysis finds that Romney’s tax plan could lower five companies’ annual tax bill by another $2.3 billion, virtually doubling what they already receive in tax breaks.
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2012/07/romney_big_oil.html
Chevron and BP are the last two of the Big Oil companies to announce profits.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/07/26/586961/top-two-oil-companies-earn-160000-per-minute-paid-low-tax-rate/
