US energy giant ExxonMobil and Anglo-Dutch energy giant Royal Dutch Shell on Thursday record quarterly net profits. ExxonMobil reported a 14 percent jump in quarterly net profits to a record $11.68 billion in results below most forecasts on Wall Street. The second-quarter earnings amounted to $2.27 per share excluding special items compared with an average forecast of $2.52 per share for the largest US oil and gas firm. Revenues surged 40 percent from the same period a year ago to $138 billion in the April-June period, lifted by record high crude oil prices. The company set aside 290 million dollars to cover maximum punitive damages set by the recent Supreme Court ruling in the Exxon Valdez oil spill case. Without that, the earnings would be $11.97 billion. Royal Dutch Shell said high oil prices helped push its net profit up by a third to $11.556 billion (7.409 billion euros) in the second quarter. Output fell 1.6 percent during the reporting period to 3.126 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, Shell said in an earnings release. In the second quarter, about 195,000 barrels per day were lost because of the attacks, the company added.
