Exxon Mobil nets almost $12 billion in 2nd quarter of this year

Did you miss this one? I nearly did. If it weren't for catching it as the final story of the hourly ABC news update on a local radio station, I would have never known because this story got buried in all the local media (for the most part). It seems that the big oil companies are trying to keep their profits as 'hush hush' as possible with all the anti-oil feelings out there these days. The actual number is $11.68 Billion-for ONE quarter of the year-in earnings. That number is the largest ever earnings by any one U.S. company-surpassing their own record set in the last quarter of '07. The people who watch such things said these earnings were expected because the price of a barrel of crude oil is nearly double what it was a year ago...Hmmmm...For some reason this doesn't add up for me. Don't the oil companies have to pay the going market rate for a barrel of crude oil, which is why gas is $4 a gallon right now? So, wouldn't that mean that their costs would go up too?...Ok, ok, before I go off on a rant here, this is just their earnings report, not what they pocketed. But it still leads me to question how just ONE oil company generated so much business when everyone-and I mean everyone-is cutting back on how much driving they do these days. People are consolidating trips and taking fewer liesure trips in their vehicles. People everywhere, of all economic ranges, are changing how they drive, and, I'm sorry, but with all that going on I have a hard time believing that this company was able to have such a high revenue number for one quarter-unless they are pulling an 'Enron'... Regardless, it will be interesting to see how much profit Exxon made off the nearly $12 billion they had in earnings this past quarter, because then we will get to see just how much they are 'raping' us at the pump.