With the rise in gas prices over the last few months and a slightly decreased demand for fuel, you’d think that oil companies would be losing money. If outside factors such as foreign confict and hurricane damage are the reasons for increased prices, oil companies shouldn’t be increased profits… they should be passing off all possible price breaks to consumers. Or they could just keep them as profit.

AP story from MyWay.com:

Exxon Mobil Profit, Sales Soar to Records
By STEVE QUINN

DALLAS (AP) - Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) rewrote the corporate record books Thursday as the oil company’s third-quarter earnings soared to almost $10 billion and it became the first public company ever with quarterly sales topping $100 billion. Anglo-Dutch competitor Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA) wasn’t far behind, posting a profit of $9 billion for the quarter.

Those results led Democrats in Congress to demand a new windfall profits tax. “Big oil behemoths are making out like bandits, while the average American family is getting killed by high gas prices, and soon-to-be record heating oil prices,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement.

But Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said President Bush opposes such a move and is instead considering a wide range of proposals to help cushion consumers, including the creation of an emergency reserve of gasoline and other refined products.

Thursday’s outsized earnings are a result of surging oil and natural gas prices that pushed pump prices to record territory after Hurricane Katrina. They come on the heels of similar eye-popping gains reported this week by BP PLC (BP), ConocoPhillips Inc. and Marathon Oil Corp. (MRO) Chevron Corp. (CVX) reports its earnings on Friday.

Some Republican members of Congress called on the industry to invest in ways that will increase production so that consumers get a break at the pumps or when they pay their heating bills. But analysts said telling the industry how to spend its money was unfair, if not futile.

“Exxon is a good corporate citizen but it does not work for the welfare of the country,” said oil analyst Fadel Gheit at Oppenheimer & Co. in New York.

Exxon Chairman and Chief Executive Lee R. Raymond did not mention of the record results in the company’s earnings release. Instead, he noted that the world’s largest publicly traded oil company “acted responsibly in pricing at our company operated service stations, and we also encouraged our independent retailers and distributors to do the same.”

Full AP Article: Exxon Mobil Profit, Sales Soar to Records

MSNBC Article: Oil industry awash in record levels of cash