Exxon Mobil Corp. saw fourth-quarter earnings jump 63 per cent as it benefited from higher prices for crude oil and natural gas.
Exxon Mobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, said Thursday that it also set a record for earnings in one year, $21.51
billion US, nearly double its profit for all of 2002. In the October-December quarter, Exxon Mobil earned $6.65 billion, or $1.01 per share,
compared with $4.09 billion, or 60 cents per share, a year earlier.
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/business/040129/b0129124.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58311-2004Jan28.html Judge Says Exxon Owes $6.75 Billion For Valdez
Appeal Promised as Suit Over '89 Spill Drags On
By Griff Witte
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 29, 2004; Page E01
A federal judge in Alaska yesterday ordered Exxon Mobil Corp. to pay $6.75 billion to 32,000 fisherman, landowners and others affected
by the 11 million gallons of oil that poured into Prince William Sound after the grounding of the Exxon Valdez nearly 15 years ago.
Exxon Mobil immediately vowed to appeal, and the case seems destined for further litigation.
Yesterday's ruling stems from the torrent of lawsuits filed after the spill against Exxon by fishermen, Alaska Natives, landowners, small
businessmen and municipalities in south-central Alaska. Those suits led to a 1994 decision by an Anchorage jury that awarded a
consolidated set of plaintiffs $5 billion in punitive damages. Since then, the case has been kicked back and forth between federal judge H.
Russel Holland's court in Alaska and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California, which has twice vacated Holland's decisions.
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