Executives from six major oil companies refused to testify this week at a U.S. Senate hearing into whether oil industry mergers in recent years have made gasoline more expensive to consumers. The Senate Judiciary committee, which is holding the hearing on Wednesday, said it asked representatives from Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Valero Energy, and the U.S. units of BP (British Petroleum) and Royal Dutch Shell to testify on the issue. "All declined the invitation to testify," the committee said in a statement late Monday, without providing details. The companies, with the exception of Valero, were scolded by lawmakers at a Senate hearing in November on the industry's soaring profits at the time and high energy prices. Bill Kovacic, a member of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), is scheduled to testify at the hearing. The FTC is investigating whether oil companies manipulated gasoline prices and oil refining production levels. The agency will submit its findings to Congress in May. Consumer groups have complained that mergers in the industry have decreased competition at the same time oil companies have been reporting record profits from higher energy prices. For example, Exxon Mobil reported Monday that it earned $10.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2005 and $36.1 billion for all of last year, shattering the earnings record for a U.S. company. Exxon's 2005 profit was bigger than the economies of 125 countries.
