Apr 24, 2002 2 min read

IRVING, Texas (AP) – Exxon Mobil Corp. reported Tuesday that first-quarter profits dropped sharply and fell short of Wall Street’s expectations as the company suffered from energy prices that were lower than a year ago. Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, said its outlook has improved so far in the second quarter, with oil prices bouncing up and leading to fatter profit margins. The oil giant said it earned $2.09 billion, or 30 cents per share in the first quarter, compared to $5 billion, or 71 cents per share, in the same period last year.

Excluding continuing costs from the 1999 merger of Exxon and Mobil, the company said it would have earned $2.15 billion, or 31 cents per share, compared to $5.05 billion, or 72 cents per share a year ago.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call had expected Exxon Mobil to earn 39 cents per share. Revenue fell 24 percent to $43.53 billion from $57.30 billion a year earlier.

Not only did Exxon Mobil’s earnings fall from a year ago, they also dropped from the fourth quarter of last year, in which the company earned $2.88 billion.

Although a relatively small part of its business, U.S. exploration and production earnings plunged 73 percent to $444 million because of a drop in natural gas prices, the company said.

Refining and marketing results tumbled because of smaller profit margins around the world, the company said.

U.S. refining and marketing earnings fell to $14 million from $409 million a year earlier, and similar operations abroad flipped from a $590 million profit a year ago to a $42 million loss.

Exxon Mobil increased its exploration and capital spending to $2.97 billion from $2.52 billion.