The U.S. DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA) division recently released its report on the combined net income of the nineteen major oil companies for the third quarter of 2008 (Q308). The combined net income for this index of companies was $48 billion dollars, an 82% increase over the same period last year and a 102% increase over the average third quarter net income from 2003 to 2007. Revenue for Q308 was $428.8 billion, 43.4% higher than Q307 results. The report cited higher refining margins, crude oil and natural gas prices, and an abundant supply of natural gas which compensated for reduced crude oil supplies. According to the report, petroleum businesses faired well-almost doubling their net income from Q307 to Q308 (99.6%). The Oil and Natural Gas Production businesses did even better with a 110% increase over Q307's net income. Net income growth for the Refining/Marketing and Natural gas and Power businesses were lower but nevertheless impressive at 62% and 48.1% respectively. All sectors saw positive net income growth with the exception of the Chemical sector which saw a 20.1% decline in net income compared to Q307. Net income growth for domestics Oil and Natural Gas Production companies was better than that of their foreign counterparts. Compared to Q307, net income for domestic Oil and Natural Gas Production businesses increased by 107.8%, while net income for foreign businesses within the same sector grew by 72.2%. On the other hand, income growth for foreign Refining/Marketing businesses was better than that of their domestic cohorts. Net income for foreign Refining/Marketing businesses was 89.2% greater than that for Q307 while the domestic income growth was 49.3%. Domestic Oil and Natural Gas Production grew by 87.9% over the same period last year while foreign production only grew 14.5%. Overall, Q308 net income result for major oil companies, both foreign and domestic were spectacular and chatters the record net income results of the same quarter last year.

The nineteen oil companies used in this report include: Anadarko Petroleum Corp., Apache Corp., BP p.l.c. (U.S. operations), Chesapeake Energy Corp., Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips, Devon Energy Corp., El Paso Corp., EnCana Corp. (U.S. operations), EOG Resources Inc., Equitable Resources Inc., Exxon Mobil Corp., Hess Corp., Marathon Oil Corp., Occidental Petroleum Corp., Royal Dutch Shell p.l.c. (U.S. operations), Sunoco Inc., Tesoro Corp., Valero Energy Corp., The Williams Companies Inc, and XTO Energy Inc.

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