FORGET BANK ROBBERY. The best way to make a lot of money in a hurry is to start an oil company.
Take Exxon Mobil Corp.
Just eight years ago, it was a mere gleam in the eye of a few billionaires and millionaires as they played with their small old-fashioned oil companies, Mobil and Exxon. Then the billionaires decided to put the two together and create an oil company on a scale not dreamed of since John D. Rockefeller napped at his desk at Standard Oil.
Last week, Exxon Mobil reported third-quarter profits of $10.49 billion — the second-largest profit ever reported by a publicly traded U.S. company. The largest profit? Why, that was Exxon Mobil in the fourth quarter of last year.
It is amazing what a entrepreneur can do with a good idea, a few billion dollars and a lock on a large share of the supply of a necessary commodity.
Of course it did not hurt that, during the third quarter, gasoline prices hit records highs across the nation. Here in Emporia, prices approached $3 a gallon and stayed there for weeks. It was a painful time.
It is not much better now. Prices have gone down but, in place of prices that hung forever just short of $3, Emporia now has gasoline prices that pop and hop around like grease in a skillet. Prices vary from station to station by 10 cents a gallon or more and prices change so often and so quickly that hitting a red light on the way to the gas station can make a $2 or $3 difference in the price of a tank of gas.
But prices are down, and Exxon Mobil may not be able to keep up its pace of record profits this quarter. It would not be surprising if profits dropped below $10 billion.
But don’t worry, those billionaires will manage somehow to keep food on the table.
Perhaps they’ll even be able to afford a few gallons of diesel fuel for their yachts.
Patrick S. Kelley
Editorial Page Editor