Exxon Targets $10 Billion Buyback as Profits Soar on Oil Rally

  • CEO Darren Woods was among oil executives grilled by lawmakers
  • Stock on pace for biggest annual advance since at least 1981

     

Photographer: Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg
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Exxon Mobil Corp. posted its biggest profit in seven years and pledged to spend as much as $10 billion on share buybacks amid a worldwide rally in commodity prices.

Surging natural gas prices and a rebound in refining margins added to already strong oil and petrochemical prices. Exxon earned $1.58 a share during the third quarter, it said in a statementBloomberg Terminal, compared with the $1.56 average estimate among analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Net income, excluding some one-time gains and losses, reached $6.8 billion, the most since 2014.