Good news from the oil industry: ExxonMobil announced a record after-tax profit of $39.5 billion for 2006.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070201/ap_on_bi_ge/earns_exxon_mobil

That is great news because it means the company will have more funds to reinvest in exploration, refinery expansion, drilling platforms, chemical plants, and all those other brilliant machines that American families benefit from every day.

The firm invested $20 billion in exploration, structures, and equipment in 2006 and $18 billion in 2005. See here and here.

High profits are a signal to ExxonMobil management, other energy companies, and Wall Street to feed this industry more capital and to continue increasing energy production. That’s good news for U.S. energy security and U.S. consumers.

The bad news with high corporate profits is that governments confiscate so much of them. In 2005, the firm paid current income taxes of $23 billion on pre-tax profits of $59 billion, for an effective income tax rate of 39%. (The firm also paid $31 billion in excise taxes to governments). Of course, Exxon simply collects these taxes on behalf of governments–the ultimate burden falls on individuals.

(In 2006, income taxes were $28 billion on pre-tax earnings of $67 billion, but I couldn’t find the breakdown of current vs. deferred tax)

Anyway, kudos to Exxon for their fine performance!