WASHINGTON – The country’s three largest oil and gas companies are expected to report combined first-quarter profits this week in excess of $16 billion, a 19 percent surge from last year.
President Bush on Tuesday gave the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to temporarily waive regional clean-fuel regulations to promote greater gasoline-supply flexibility, but some members of Congress are renewing calls for a windfall profits tax.
Still others are threatening hearings and expressing outrage at how the industry invests cautiously in new refining capacity yet rewards its executives lavishly.
“These members of Congress are fit to be tied,” said Paul Cicio, executive director of the Industrial Energy Consumers of America, a trade group concerned about the soaring cost of natural gas.
The combined earnings expected from ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. will be 14 times greater than the combined first-quarter profits of Google Inc., Apple Computer Inc. and Oracle Corp.
“That level of profit is not justifiable,” said Tyson Slocum, a consumer advocate and energy expert at Public Citizen.
But with world oil prices trading around $72 a barrel, analysts say full-year profits for the oil majors are likely to surpass the record-setting earnings of 2005, when Exxon reported a $36.13 billion profit, the highest ever for a U.S. company.
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