industry earnings

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ExxonMobil’s earnings, although high in absolute terms, need to be viewed in the context of the scale of our industry, as well as the huge investment requirements.

• In 2007, the oil and gas industry earned, on average, about 8.3 cents per dollar of sales — near the Dow Jones Industrial Average for major industries of 7.8 cents per dollar of sales. The American Petroleum Institute estimates that the industry earned 7.4 cents per dollar of sales in the first quarter of 2008.
• In a commodities business, earnings rise and fall in cycles. We are currently in an "up" cycle, influencing our current profitability.
• About 80 percent of ExxonMobil’s earnings in the first quarter of 2008 came from outside the U.S.
• ExxonMobil's profits from the manufacture and sale of petroleum products in the U.S. (U.S. Downstream) in the first quarter of 2008 comprised less than four percent of worldwide earnings.
• Over the past three years, oil and gas production has generated about two-thirds of ExxonMobil's earnings.