Nigerian militants said Monday they had blown up an oil pipeline and captured six crew members of a chemical tanker.
International oil giant Royal Dutch Shell announced Thursday that its net profits fell 27 percent in the last quarter of 2008, another indicator of the sickly global economy.
In a week when oil prices shot to $143 a barrel, the mood at the World Petroleum Congress was surprisingly somber
We rely on it to power our everyday lives, and it drives the economy worldwide, but oil faces an uncertain future in the 21st century. Black gold is increasingly expensive, environmentally damaging and, in the view of some experts, increasingly scarce.
Gasoline prices set a record for the 16th consecutive day Wednesday. A gallon of gas cost an average of $3.62, according to AAA, and much more in some markets.
Oil producer BP reported a 63% increase in profits Tuesday to a whopping $7.6 billion. Royal Dutch Shell's first-quarter earnings increased 25% to a record $9.1 billion.
Lawmakers grilled executives from the world's five largest publicly traded oil companies Tuesday, criticizing them for taking tax subsidies and not investing in renewable resources amid record prices for oil and gasoline.
You can't go far wrong in a truck equipped with an Astrata box. The device, half the size of a cigarette pack, can be wired into anything that moves - truck, car, shipping container - to head off nearly every conceivable type of disaster.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc bucked an industry-wide trend of falling earnings on Thursday, posting a 20 percent rise in second-quarter profits as fat refining margins helped outweigh lower output.
Exxon Mobil (No. 2) had a record $39.5 billion profits, which is impressive enough. Even more remarkable is that its earnings grew $3.4 billion in 2006, while Royal Dutch Shell (No. 3) had only a small increase, and BP (No. 4) saw profits fall. Russian gas giant Gazprom (No. 52) grew its profits 37%, to $20.3 billion.
Nigerian militants said Monday they had blown up an oil pipeline and captured six crew members of a chemical tanker.
International oil giant Royal Dutch Shell announced Thursday that its net profits fell 27 percent in the last quarter of 2008, another indicator of the sickly global economy.
In a week when oil prices shot to $143 a barrel, the mood at the World Petroleum Congress was surprisingly somber
We rely on it to power our everyday lives, and it drives the economy worldwide, but oil faces an uncertain future in the 21st century. Black gold is increasingly expensive, environmentally damaging and, in the view of some experts, increasingly scarce.
Gasoline prices set a record for the 16th consecutive day Wednesday. A gallon of gas cost an average of $3.62, according to AAA, and much more in some markets.
Oil producer BP reported a 63% increase in profits Tuesday to a whopping $7.6 billion. Royal Dutch Shell's first-quarter earnings increased 25% to a record $9.1 billion.
Lawmakers grilled executives from the world's five largest publicly traded oil companies Tuesday, criticizing them for taking tax subsidies and not investing in renewable resources amid record prices for oil and gasoline.
You can't go far wrong in a truck equipped with an Astrata box. The device, half the size of a cigarette pack, can be wired into anything that moves - truck, car, shipping container - to head off nearly every conceivable type of disaster.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc bucked an industry-wide trend of falling earnings on Thursday, posting a 20 percent rise in second-quarter profits as fat refining margins helped outweigh lower output.
Exxon Mobil (No. 2) had a record $39.5 billion profits, which is impressive enough. Even more remarkable is that its earnings grew $3.4 billion in 2006, while Royal Dutch Shell (No. 3) had only a small increase, and BP (No. 4) saw profits fall. Russian gas giant Gazprom (No. 52) grew its profits 37%, to $20.3 billion.
Oil prices turned lower Wednesday after the government said supplies of crude rose far more than traders had expected.
Oil rose Monday as a string of U.S. refining outages again sparked concerns of a supply shortfall in the midst of the top consumer's peak driving season.
Oil prices dipped nearly $1 on Wednesday after the government said supplies of gasoline and crude oil jumped more than traders had expected.
Oil prices fell Wednesday after the government said growth in gasoline demand eased, refineries ramped up production and inventories were in line with estimates.
Shake-ups and results in the tech sector could boost U.S. stocks when the markets open Thursday.
Stocks rose Tuesday, in one of the last four trading sessions of the year, as falling oil prices helped offset a weak report on holiday retail sales.
Stocks posted gains in light holiday-week trading Tuesday as a big drop in oil prices helped offset a weak report on holiday retail sales.
Here are some stocks that were moving in late trading Thursday:
Stocks looked to continue their rally Thursday following the gains in overseas markets after the Federal Reserve left rates here unchanged.
Royal Dutch Shell ranks no. 3 on FORTUNE's Global 500 this year, with $306.7 billion in revenues, up 14.2% from the previous year. The The Hague, Netherlands-based company was ranked no. 4 on the 2005 list. Its 2005 profits were $25.3 billion, up 39.2% from a year earlier. 2005 was a banner year for most Global 500 companies.
Gushing black gold Energy and oil companies enjoyed the highest jumps in revenue and income in 2005. No. 3 Royal Dutch Shell reported $25 billion in profits, second to No. 1 Exxon Mobil's $36 bill...
EXPLANATIONS AND FOOTNOTES
1. Exxon Mobil
For years American investors were notorious stay-at-homes, resisting the advice of investment strategists to diversify globally. But over the past 18 months, that's been changing.
EXPLANATIONS AND FOOTNOTES
Senators, considering a bill to restrict energy industry mergers and tax breaks, grilled oil executives again Tuesday as to why they are reaping record profits while consumers pay record prices at the pump.
Trying to invest in ethanol and biofuels today is a bit like Internet investing in the '90s. Most of the publicly traded companies are pint-sized crapshoots, and it's not yet clear whether the early-to-the-game blue chips are pursuing the best strategies. So there are going to be many, many more pets.coms than eBays in agrifuels. More Time Warners than Microsofts. Indeed, many of the venture capitalists bankrolling tomorrow's ethanol IPOs (see "How to Beat the High Cost of Gasoline Forever!") are the same folks who funded the '90s dot-com debacle.
Trying to invest in ethanol and biofuels today is a bit like Internet investing in the '90s. Most of the publicly traded companies are pint-sized crapshoots, and it's not yet clear whether the early-to-the-game blue chips are pursuing the best strategies.
Oil prices held steady before climbing further above $58 a barrel Wednesday after the Energy Information Administration reported that crude stockpiles rose, but that the supply of distillates used for heating fell.
CEOs from the nation's biggest oil companies face a grilling in Congress Wednesday before a joint Senate committee hearing on energy prices and record industry profits.
Royal Dutch Shell on Thursday unveiled a 68% third- quarter profit due to a 49% increase for the price of oil and gas that it sold, as well as the sale of pipeline assets.
Damage was reported Saturday at two oil refineries in the Gulf of Mexico area following Hurricane Rita, but the full extent of the damage from the storm is still being assessed.
With President Bush promising massive aid to rebuild the devastated Gulf Coast, investors are eyeing what companies stand to benefit from the rebuilding process.
Wal-Mart took No. 1 on Fortune magazine's annual list of the Global 500, the fourth year in a row the retailer has placed at the top of the list.
The Federal Trade Commission has concluded Royal Dutch/Shell Group ( RD, SC) wasn't trying to drive up California gasoline prices by closing a refinery in Bakersfield, Calif.
Stocks stalled early Thursday, one session after a steep selloff caused the Dow's biggest one-day point drop in nearly seven weeks.
Royal Dutch/Shell plans to boost exploration and production in a bid to restore confidence in the scandal-hit oil giant.
Royal Dutch/Shell has agreed to pay about $150 million to settle charges by U.S. and British regulators that it vastly overstated oil reserves.
Right now Royal Dutch/Shell Group is the oil company Wall Street loves to hate. The reason, of course, is that its managers misled the public about the size of its reserves, prompting the resignati...
Investors will be looking at the economic data due out Thursday hoping for some insight into how aggressively the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates, as well as news about Accenture, Apple and H&R Block.
With oil hovering near record prices and OPEC saying it's out of their control, the question of whether the planet is nearing the end of its oil supply has again arisen.
Anglo-Dutch oil company Royal Dutch/Shell Group, grappling with a number of investigations into its energy-reserves accounting, said it reassigned the top financial executive at its exploration-and-production business, Thursday's Wall Street Journal reported.
Royal Dutch/Shell Group's guidelines on accounting for natural-gas reserves were relaxed as early as the mid-1990s, a move that appears to have played a role in Shell's overstatement of its energy holdings, Thursday's Wall Street Journal reported.
The ousted chairman of Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD) was warned of possible overstatements in the oil titan's petroleum reserves two years before he publicly disclosed them, two people familiar with the situation told The Wall Street Journal.
Royal Dutch/Shell Group, who have been embroiled in a dispute about overstated oil and gas reserves, said Wednesday that its chairman Sir Philip Watts had resigned.
Over the past couple of years a surprising trait has emerged among the oil giants: Some of their most outstanding employees are actually environmentalists. Or at least you'd think so from their adv...
It was a record year--for losses. Of the world's 500 largest companies, 297 saw profits fall. Total earnings in 2001 were less than half what they were the previous year, by far the largest one-yea...
When we sat down in November to begin our hunt for the best investments for 2002, we "lacked visibility" (to use Wall Street's current favorite phrase) about where the market was headed. Specifical...
What does it take to join the elite club of the world's most admired companies? When FORTUNE, with the help of worldwide consulting firm the Hay Group, set out to create the first-ever list of glob...
By all the usual measures, Royal Dutch/Shell should be sitting on top of the world. For the third year in a row it leads the Global 500 in total profits, having earned a staggering $8.9 billion in ...
The giants of world business charted new territory last year, from cigarette factories in Uzbekistan to oil pipelines in Bolivia, as FORTUNE's Global 500 pushed across borders to seize fresh market...
LIKE MANY SMALL INVESTORS, YOU MAY STILL BE celebrating last year's 30%-plus returns on stocks and equity mutual funds. If you are, then we're sorry to say that the economy is down to its last bott...
IF YOU'RE LIKE MOST SAVVY INVESTORS, the fact that dividend yields are at record lows while stock prices hover near record highs has given you pause. Could this classic danger signal for equities p...
BIGGEST INCREASES IN REVENUES
Stopping counterfeiters is a relentless battle for brand manufacturers, whose detection systems are foiled by ever clever copiers. The International Anticounterfeiting Coalition Inc. in Washington,...
The prosperous Czech Republic faces an unusual problem: too much foreign capital. The central bank's reserves of Western currency rose from $3.8 billion to some $5.3 billion in this year's first ni...
Exxon, by pumping profits up 10.7%, to $5.28 billion, passed Royal Dutch/Shell (last year's profit champ) to become the world's most profitable company -- good news, surely, to several thousand Ala...
Joint accounts are the bane of many a household, but not in the credit card business. Co-branded credit cards -- those issued jointly by businesses and card companies, like those shown here -- are ...
Remember 1986, when a temporary oil glut caused crude prices to sink to $10 a barrel? Investors who ignored experts' warnings of a prolonged period of low oil prices and bought languishing energy s...
DON'T JUST DO something, sit there. That's been my style of portfolio management since the late Seventies, when I began investing for retirement. I wanted a collection of stocks I could treat with ...
As they did last year, American corporations ranked No. 1 in sales in 14 of the 25 industry groups we survey. Profits were something else. General Motors not only remains the largest company in the...
HOW FAT, or fit, is European industry? Are Europe's big manufacturers, as protectionists there would have you believe, a bunch of nymphs, soon to be victims of invading satyrs in the form of foreig...
SIR PETER HOLMES has a way of brushing death aside. He stepped on a land mine while serving with the British Army in Korea 40 years ago but escaped with minor injuries. Last summer he walked away f...
In the past, royals married only royals. Consequently, almost all the surviving European monarchs are related to one another, most through the lineage of Queen Victoria and her nine children. Compa...
Falling corporate earnings, rising inflation, and fears of a downturn in the U.S. economy are almost enough to drive investors out of the stock market. But you don't have to give up equities for th...
With crude prices rising so fast, oil and gas stocks are going up too. But selecting the best ones is as tricky as predicting the moves of Saddam Hussein. One safe way to cash in on oil now and bui...
Income-oriented investors usually stick to U.S. issues. But this year they might also consider high-yielding foreign stocks that trade in the U.S. as American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), which are ...
THE BATTERED oil industry could use a respite after 15 years of wild booms, painful busts, and run-amok prices. At first glance the 1990s look like just & what the doctor ordered. Most forecasters ...
A list of the world's 100 biggest industrial companies is a picture of the global economy -- and as this year's compilation shows, the picture is changing. The titans of 20th-century industry, moto...
Investors were shocked by last month's 0.6% surge in the consumer price index. That represents a 7.1% annual rate, compared with the recent 4% to 4.5% rate. In addition, the producer price index, w...
Companies that knowingly pollute can no longer count on their insurance policies to cover the cleanup costs. A California superior court jury decided that Shell Oil was aware that it was damaging t...
-- Before you buy personal financial software, be sure you're ready to commit two hours each week to entering your data. (Page 47)
If you are seeking capital gains, you might start by looking for high yields. A recent study by John Slatter, an analyst at the brokerage Prescott Ball & Turben in Cleveland, shows that investors w...
-- Bank of Boston Sporting a 4% dividend yield, Bank of Boston could produce 20% annual earnings growth as its business prospers along with the New England region. Recent price: $27.25. Target: $50...
NOT MUCH moves and shakes in the world without them. The 50 biggest industrial companies employ 8.8 million people, more than the population of Sweden. They generated sales in 1987 of $1.5 trillion...
When acquirers are cruising, they often sail right by companies with low price/earnings multiples. Earnings figures are too easily manipulated to be of interest by themselves. But let a company gen...
In the boardroom at Royal Dutch/Shell, chairmen come and go. And hardly anyone, including people who make it their business to track such things, ever notices. ''More than most big companies, Royal...
Buying individual foreign stocks may appear at first glance to be beyond the scope of most beginning investors (see the story on page 75). But aspiring internationalists should not be daunted. The ...
The Dow's continuing trampoline act has investors in a quandary. In just one day in mid-February, the 30 Dow industrials bounced up 54.14 points, a record; within the next two days the average sagg...
IN ALL the first four years of FORTUNE's annual survey of the most admired companies in America, one corporation has reigned as No. 1. But not in the latest survey. IBM is still right up there amon...
The only folks unaware of the collapse of oil prices, it seems, are the stockholders of big oil companies. Since November 1985, when OPEC opened the spigots in a bid for market share and crude pric...
RUSHING to introduce an instant camera by 1976, Eastman Kodak's development committee issued a startling directive: ''Development should not be constrained by what an individual feels is potential ...
PLUNGING OIL PRICES have kept stock prices of most oil companies from enjoying the bull market, but Royal Dutch/Shell has fared strikingly better than its competitors. Since late January, when OPEC...
The situation looks grim for the oil industry. OPEC keeps calling meetings in fruitless attempts to hold the line on prices. Oil at $25 a barrel seems likely. Even $20 a barrel--a price not seen si...
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