With oil prices at record levels over a substantial part of 2008, oil companies reporting bumper profits should not come as a surprise.

However,  with the tide changing dramatically in the last quarter of 2008, nobody would have expected the profit trend to continue. But that is exactly what Exxon Mobil has done, breaking its own record and posting a profit of $45.2 billion, despite fourth quarter earnings that were a third lower than the same period the previous year.

ExxonMobil seems to have been riding over the oil slump on increased profit margins at refuelling pumps and strong support from overseas refineries, which more than offset the sharp drop in profits it suffered from producing oil and gas.

The oil major with the most widely dispersed operations across the globe broke its own record even as oil prices soared to $147 a barrel in July (See: Record oil prices send Exxon and Shell quarterly profits to record highs) before declining steadily to less than $ 40 a barrel by the close of the year. Despite falling prices, ExxonMobil still trumped analysts by registering $7.82 billion in profits or $1.55 a share for the final quarter of the year. 

It said its bottom line had taken a hit of $3.2 billion and total production was lower because of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike in the Gulf of Mexico.

Revenues in the fourth quarter stood at $84.7 billion, down 27 per cent from a year earlier but it exceeded Wall Street estimates.

According to Bloomberng the combined revenue of Mobil and Chevron  for 2008 exceeded the gross domestic product of all but 16 of the world's nations.

Exxon Mobil's earnings report comes in a week that saw the world's biggest oil companies posting mixed results. Chevron announced a less than 1 per cent rise in profit for the fourth quarter from the earlier year to $4.9 billion.

Despite depressed oil prices Chevron's refining profits jumped 10-fold. 

On Thursday, 29 January, Royal Dutch Shell, the largest European oil firm reported a fourth quarter loss due to inventory adjustments, but posted a profit of $26.3 billion. 

Conoco Phillips posted $1.9 billion in operating profits on Wednesday, but took a $33.7 billion charge against earnings on tumbling oil prices that slashed exploration and production asset values - including Burlington Northern and a stake in oil firm Lukoil.

Hess, the fifth largest US oil company, posted its first loss in six years.

Occidental Petroleum saw it fourth-quarter profits dive to a five-year low. Refining major Valero cut spending plans.

"Exxon Mobil's financial strength continued to support its disciplined capital investment approach in the midst of a growing global economic slowdown," Exxon Mobil Chairman Rex Tillerson said in a release.  He said Exxon's 2008 capital spending rose 25 per cent from a year earlier to $26.1 billion, and "through these investments we continued to demonstrate our long-term focus throughout the business cycle."