The owner of forecourt giant Esso raked in a record £44billion last year as drivers paid through the nose at the pumps.
US heavyweight Exxon Mobil’s massive haul was not only more than it has ever made before but a historic high for a Western oil company.
It is among five oil “super-majors” expected to announce a combined annual profit bonanza of £160billion.
Yet the colossal sums come off the back of soaring wholesale oil and gas prices, fuelled by the misery of Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine.
Recent figures from the AA also revealed that Esso had the second most expensive fuel prices in the UK.
Data from mid-January showed Esso’s petrol averaged 150.15p a litre and diesel 172.79p a litre.
Only rival oil goliath BP, expected to reveal annual profits of around £22billion next year, cost more.
Texas-based Exxon Mobil made £10.36billion in profits in the final three months of last year alone.
Its annual tally equated to £5.1million profit an hour, £85,000 a minute or £1,417 a second.
Even Exxon chief financial officer Kathryn Mikell admitted its profits, and the amount of cash it generated, were “up pretty significantly” in the past year.
The vast amount oil companies are making has sparked calls for more countries to levy windfall profit taxes on them.
Exxon Mobil’s results risk triggering another confrontation with the White House.
US President Joe Biden has accused oil companies of profiting from the war Russia waged on Ukraine, and has previously raised the possibility of a war profit tax on oil companies.
