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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 30, 2004)
10 Friday, January 30, 2004 THE lJAT TALI | Exxon Mobil set record profit in 2003 Congressman: FDA By David Koenig THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Burning hot DALLAS — Exxon Mobil Corp. saw fourth-quarter earn ings jump 63 percent as it bene fited from higher prices for crude oil and natural gas. Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest publicly traded oil com pany, said Thursday that it also set a record for earnings in one year, $21.51 billion, nearly dou ble its profit for all of 2002. In the October-December quarter, Exxon Mobil earned $6.65 billion, or $1.01 per share compared to $4.09 billion, or 60 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding $2.23 billion from settlement of a dispute with the Internal Revenue Service and other one-time gains and losses, Exxon Mobil said it earned operating profit of $4.42 billion, or 68 cents per share, compared to $3.79 billion, or 56 cents per share a year ago. That easily beat the forecast of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call, who had expected earnings of 58 cents per share. Revenue rose to $65.95 bil lion from $56.21 billion. Exxon Mobil shares rose 66 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $41.47 in trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange. Analysts said they expected Exxon Mobil to have a great fourth quarter because of high oil and gas prices. They said the results were even better than expected partly because Exxon Exxon Mobil Corp.'s fourth-quarter profit jumped from the previous year, helped by higher prices for crude oil and natural gas. Net income $8 billion $6.65 billion Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 2002 2003 SOURCE: Exxon Mobil Corp. AP Mobil’s chemicals business, long stuck in the doldrums, posted a $400 million increase in profit. Exxon Mobil stepped up its capital spending, including exploration, in the fourth quarter as part of a long-term strategy to boost production by drilling in West Africa, the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere around the world. Patrick Mulva, the compa ny’s director of investor rela tions, said capital spending in 2004 would remain around $15 billion. “It’s very important for us to invest in our base, a base that is highly profitable,” Mulva said. “These investments are very high-return projects for us.” For all 2003, Exxon Mobil earned a record $21.51 billion, or $3.23 per share, compared to $11.46 billion, or $1.68 per share in 2002. Excluding what the com pany considered one-time gains, the profit would have been $17.03 billion, on revenue of $246.74 bil lion, up from $204.51 billion sales in 2002. The company ended the year with $10.6 billion cash on hand, a spokesman said. The news of record earnings at Exxon Mobil comes as U.S. motorists face rising prices at the gasoline pumps. Retail prices have climbed 14 cents per gallon in the past five weeks to about $1.62 for a gallon of self- serve regular, according to the Lundberg Survey of 8,000 serv ice stations. Tyson Slocum, an energy researcher for the consumer group Public Citizen, said the huge profits indicate a handful of oil companies hold too much power, including the five that control about half the nation’s refining capacity and 60 percent of its gasoline sales. He said the government should force merged oil companies — Exxon bought Mobil in 1999 — to divest more of their assets. “The company is doing what a company should be doing, which is maximizing return to its shareholders,” Slocum said of Exxon Mobil. “The problem is when you merge fully inte grated oil companies with only minimal requirements for divestiture, it creates fertile ground for these companies to have huge market power.” Fadel Gheit, an analyst with Oppehheimer & Co., said Exxon Mobil profited from the rise in oil to more than $30 per barrel and higher natural gas prices but wasn’t responsible for the run-up. “Oil companies have absolutely no control over the price of oil. It’s a commodity price set by OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries), politics and Mother Nature,” Gheit said. He argued that if oil compa nies could control prices, “How come they didn’t do something in 1998, when oil prices were $12 a barrel?” Gheit predicted that oil and natural gas prices, which have moved higher since in the new year, would assure “another very strong quarter” for Exxon Mobil in the January-March period. As impressive as Exxon Mobil’s fourth-quarter profit was, the gain could be more than wiped out by a federal judge’s ruling Wednesday in a lawsuit stemming from the 1989 wreck of the Exxon Valdez oil tanker. The judge ordered Exxon Mobil to pay $6.75 billion in punitive damages and interest to 32,000 fishermen, Alaska natives and others harmed by the oil spill. Exxon Mobil vowed another appeal. Mulva declined to say whether the company has set aside money to pay if it eventu ally loses the case. “We believe we’ve more than met our obligations there,” Mulva said of the Alaska spill. “We spent over $3.5 billion in total in Valdez on compensation and a clean-up operation.” lax on false drug a By Lauran Neergaard THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug ting more misleading drug advertisements air unchal^J doing little to stop companies that repeatedly o^tyf 0 medications, a congressman contended Thursday* The FDA is supposed to ensure that drug proh 10 ti^ t . t(Kt ] to doctors and in the $2.8 billion worth of annual dif 6 sumer advertising — are fair and accurate. But last year, FDA sent just 24 citations l° d^P' whose ads were false or misleading, a 75 P erttnt K ',p. Hfl 1999 and 2000, according to a report issued by Waxman, D-Calif. . .• The decrease doesn’t mean drug advertising —^joOill believable, Waxman said. FDA reviewed an averag e °*^ promotional pieces a month last year — 6 percent '0 2002 — and complaints to the agency about ads’ truthn' • remained steady. ^-pianJ FDA cited one ad for every eight complaints, compared w ith one citation per seven complaints > n - When FDA cited an ad. it took, on average, almost s . s(a jj after the promotion began, says the report by Dernocra ^ J the House Government Refonn Committee. Waxman 1 ing Democrat on the committee. . -jjjjJ In one case, FDA didn’t tell a company to quit hyp ,n f t ed ao part ■om cer drug Taxotere until a year after a consumer-targe running. In another, it took FDA more than three mo* 1 pullt NEWS IN BRIEF Kroger Co. recalls roast beef from stores CINCINNATI (AP) — The Kroger Co. is recalling Private Selection brand roast beef from its stores in 20 states, including Texas, after a sample taken from a Kroger delicatessen counter in Atlanta tested positive for a bacteria that can cause sickness and, in some cases, death. The sample taken by the Georgia Department of Agriculture tested positive for listeria monocytogenes, Kroger officials said Tuesday. It was unclear when the sample was taken. Eating food contaminated with listeria monocytogenes can cause high fever, severe headaches, neck stiffness, abdominal pain, nausea and diarrhea. The infection may be more serious or even fatal among young children, frail or elderly people, or those with weak immune systems. The product is being removed from store shelves. Kroger offi cials said they had not received customer complaints of illness related to the roast beef. the maker of the controversial painkiller Oxycontin to ical journal ad that “grossly overstated’’ the drug s safW'j Congressional investigators at the General A Office in 2(K)2 called FDA’s oversight of drug ads ' j and then-incoming FDA Commissioner Mark pledged to do more. I In August, McClellan sent the industry a signal to snap FDA told one company to run expensive corrections of ads that had given false information about a popular cwWJ medicine. The agency also ordered another company topro'l doctors with corrected information after learning that dnigsal men had touted an AIDS medicine as a “miracle drug.’ | The number of citations means less than targeting the egregious violators and “making sure the letters that gooutkil teeth," said FDA Associate Commissioner Peter Pitts. Heivl that overall, the agency’s actions against rule-breakers, mebrj tines, have increased. Still, delay in targeting false drug ads “is absolutely ap j lein," Pitts acknowledged. Next month. FDA w ill give drug manufacturers moree guidelines on creating truthful ads. WwsAip m / NEWS IN BRIEF J AssemBCy of QocC Church of Christ Methodist Presbyterian Bethel Temple Assembly of God 2608 Villa Maria, Bryan 776-4835 Sunday Worship 10:15 Sunday School 9:00 www.betheltemplebcs.com ‘Baptist Parkway Baptist Church 1501 Southwest Pkwy (979) 693-4701 Sunday Worship 10:45 am & 6 pm Sunday School 9:30 am Meal 5:15 pm. College Bible Study 6:30 pm www.pbccs.org A&M Church of Christ 1901 Harvey Mitchell Pkwy. (979)693-0400 Sunday Assemblies: 8 a.m., 10:30 a.m., College Bible Class 9:30 a.m. Sunday Night: 5:45 p.m. Mid-Week 6:45 p.m. Aggies for Christ Call for on-campus pick-up info www.aggiesforchrist.org ‘EpiscopaC First United Methodist Church Bryan Worship Services: 8:40 am and 10:55 am Sunday School at 9:45 am Rev. Matt Idom, Pastor On 28' 1 ' Street, 1 block east of Texas Avenue in Bryan 779-1324 www.fumcbryan.org College Station Korean Presbyterian Church 220 Rock Prarie Rd., CS 696-0403 Sunday Worship - 2:00p.m. HO! Covenant Presbyterian Church 220 Rock Prairie Road (979) 694-7700 Students Welcome Sunday Service: 8:30 & 11 a.m. Sunday School: 9:45 a.m. Cathode St. Mary’s Catholic Center 603 Church Avenue in Northgate (979)846-5717 www.aaqiecatholic.ora Pastoral Team Rev. Michael J. Sis, Pastor Rev. Keith Koehl, Associate Pastor - Campus Ministers - Deacon Bill Scott. Deacon David Reed, Martha Tonn, Julia Motekaitis Dawn Rouen, Roel Garza Daily Masses Mon.-Fri.: 5:30 p.m. in the Church Tues.StThurs.: 12:05 p.m. in the All Faiths Chapel Weekend Masses Sat: 2:00 p.m. (Korean), 5:30 p.m. (English), 7:00 p.m. (Spanish) Sun.: 9:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., 5:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Confessions Wed. 8:30-9:30 p.m., Sat. 4:00-5:15 p.m. o.r by appointment. St. Thomas Episcopal 906 George Bush Dr. • College Station, TX 696-1726 Services - 8:00 (Rite 1), 9:00(Family Service Rite II) and 11:15 (Rite ll-for late sleeping Ags) 7:30 p.m. Evensong Next door to Canterbury House, the Episopal Student Center . 9{pn-(DenominationaC www.covenantpresbyterian.org Lutheran Sunday 8:15 a.m. & 10:45 a.m. Sunday School 9:30 a.m Aggie Lutherans Brazos Community Church l&m aW deuiqkteu abimdatCt lift klMqdomt atU 2:17 Siwdouj -Qe'd/icR be/jiM @ 10:00 cu.m. ffutatt gioupi Meet uiteldy 700 University Dr., C.S. Pastor Paul Fowler (979) 260-1922 (in same shopping center as Golden Corral) LUTHERAN CHURCH COLLEGE STATION. TEXAS Comer of Hatvey Mitchell Pkwy and Rio Grande 693-4403 • www.peacelutheranweb.com Christian Methodist First Christian Church 900 South Ennis, Bryan 823-5451 Sunday School 9:30 a.m. Morning Worship 10:45 a.m. Robert D. Chandler, Minister United Methodist 417 University Dr. (in Northgate) • 846-8731 Sunday Worship: 8:30, 9:45, 10:50 College Sunday School: 9:30,10:45 Thursday Nights: 5:30 - University Choir 6:30 - FREE Supper, 7:00 - College Bible Study www.am-umc.org/college Fading a Httie overwhelmed? God can help! We are a small church that teaches God's Word verse by verse, and places a high value on worship. CASUAL ATMOSPHERE Come join us! Currently meeting at: Putt-Putt Golf & Somes 1705 Valley View Dr C.S. Just across Texas Ave. from the C.S. Police Station Services at 10:30 am Sunday Pastor Jeff Hughes ‘95 (979)324-3972 www.aggleland.ee To advertise on this page call The Battalion today! 845-2696 V. Scientists estimatf X-ray cancermA LONDON (AP)—Then* cancer from common X and increasingly popular scans ranges from less percent to about 3 according to a new study. The small risk posed by ray radiation is well-known the study by researchers Oxford University and C# Research U.K. makes most careful effort to da!; estimate it precisely, the fists said. CT scans, also know 1 CAT scans, are compt' enhanced X-rays that can ‘ 1 r e a vide a better view of all f a 8 <1 ' n - 1 of the body. But they eirt J e & nificantly more radiationtb 'Ink f standard X-ray. I Vin; In the United States, do; ilsect have urged caution abjhret unnecessarily using thescMd g on children. Children aref for a sensitive to radiation over th exposure is cumulative. Sunda) The new research indc®Vin; the cancer risk — ranging Held »< 0.6 percent to 3.2 percer'L^ varies depending on the j quency of X-rays and sc p le 15 countries surveyed. E> not involved in the study wro^i the journal The Lancet, published the findings, thal benefits of X-rays and CT# fat outweigh the risk. 'sure' of U.S. capturing Bin Laden this yea^ KABUL, Afghanistan (/ The U.S. military is “sure 1 catch Osama bin Laden year, perhaps within monl spokesman declared Thui but Pakistan said it wou allow American troops to the border in search of I Qaida leader. U.S. military spokesmai Col. Bryan Hilferty’s predii about capturing bin U comes as the Army read?' spring offensive Taliban and al-Qaida A U.S. official Wednesday that the on shi L’sl fThei he f 1 lam 32- ‘etc rat Pf e sf 'W a ted ninj “Th hat on ichii might extend into Pakistanjr 1 st r Bin Laden, chief suspeW' arc the Sept. 11,2001, attacks* 9 w sparked the U.S.-led invajp^ of Afghanistan, is believe?! be holed up somewhere efc the mountainous border. m e I ’roehl. Fed
