Bad Economy + High Gas Prices = wow Oil companies are making a killing!?!?

Rank Company Global 500
Rank 2008 Profits
($ millions) Profits % change from 2007
1 Exxon Mobil 2 45,220.0 11.4
2 Gazprom 22 29,864.1 16.1
3 Royal Dutch Shell 1 26,277.0 -16.1
4 Chevron 5 23,931.0 28.1
5 BP 4 21,157.0 1.5
6 Petrobras 34 18,879.0 43.7
7 Microsoft 117 17,681.0 25.7
8 General Electric 12 17,410.0 -21.6
9 Nestlé 48 16,669.6 87.8
10 Industrial & Commercial Bank of China 92 15,948.5 48.8
11 Total 6 15,500.4 -14.1
12 BHP Billiton 120 15,390.0 14.7
13 Petronas 80 15,308.9 -15.5
14 Wal-Mart Stores 3 13,400.0 5.3
15 China Construction Bank 125 13,323.7 46.8
16 CVRD 205 13,218.0 11.8
17 Banco Santander 35 12,992.3 4.8
18 Johnson & Johnson 103 12,949.0 22.4
19 ENI 17 12,917.0 -5.7
20 AT&T 29 12,867.0 7.7
21 International Business Machines 45 12,334.0 18.4
22 Procter & Gamble 68 12,075.0 16.8
23 China Mobile Communications 99 11,442.0 35.8
24 Rosneft Oil 158 11,120.0 -13.5
25 Telefónica 66 11,112.3 -8.8
26 China National Petroleum 13 10,270.8 -31.2
27 ArcelorMittal 28 9,399.0 -9.3
28 Bank of China 145 9,260.5 25.2
29 Lukoil 65 9,144.0 -3.9
30 Siemens 30 8,595.1 69.8
31 GlaxoSmithKline 168 8,438.6 -19.1
32 Hewlett-Packard 32 8,329.0 14.7
33 Roche Group 171 8,288.1 1.9
34 Novartis 183 8,195.0 -31.4
35 Pfizer 152 8,104.0 -0.5
36 Cisco Systems 191 8,052.0 9.8
37 Barclays 83 8,035.2 -9.1
38 Merck 378 7,808.4 138.4
39 Enel 62 7,747.3 42.3
40 Statoil Hydro 36 7,664.2 1.8
41 PDVSA 27 7,451.0 38.7
42 Agricultural Bank of China 155 7,406.4 28.7
43 Unilever 121 7,357.9 38.3
44 Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria 113 7,347.7 -12.4
45 GDF Suez 53 7,109.3 110.1
46 Volkswagen 14 6,956.9 23.4
47 Philip Morris International 345 6,890.0 N.A.
48 Occidental Petroleum 365 6,857.0 27.0
49 Verizon Communications 55 6,428.0 16.4
50 TNK-BP Holding 234 6,384.0 11.4
From the July 20, 2009 issue