Chevron earned $11.4 billion excluding special items, up 74% from the first quarter and 247% from a year ago. Including one-time items, both earned hundreds of millions more: ExxonMobil’s net income reached $17.9 billion, while Chevron brought in $11.6 billion. ExxonMobil’s net income was $2,245.62 every second of every day of the 92-day quarter. On that basis, Chevron earned $1,462.11 per second. Since it takes about two minutes to pump 20 gallons of natural gas, that means between them the two oil giants made more than $400,000 between them in the time it took you to fill your tank. Reuters reported that this was a record profit for both companies – although neither mentioned it in their statement, as companies usually do when their profits reach record highs. Oil prices have started to fall recently and natural gas prices are falling with them. AAA puts the average gas price on Friday at $4.26 a gallon. That’s down 76 cents a gallon, or 15%, from the record high of $5.02 a gallon set on June 14. But one of the main reasons for that drop is growing fears among investors trading futures contracts. fulfillment of oil and gasoline that the nation is struggling towards recession. And if it is, one major reason is that the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates at a historically rapid pace in an effort to bring inflation under control. And high gas prices are the main driver of these price increases. The US economy has contracted in size each of the past two quarters, which is a popular shorthand for a recession. Although economists debate whether the economy is already in a recession or ahead, many consumers feel that we are already in a recession. High gas prices are one of the reasons they feel that way. Shares of ExxonMobil ( XOM ) and Chevron ( CVX ) both rose in premarket trade on better-than-expected earnings. Shares of ExxonMobil have rallied more than 50% this year through Thursday’s close, while Chevron shares have gained more than 30%, making them among the best performers on the Dow Jones industrial average.
