Big Oil's Big Profits - Not as big as you'd think

ExxonMobil spends roughly $1 billion per day in operating expenses, according to Chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson (in an interview with ABC's Charles Gibson). If that doesn't put Exxon's "outrageous" quarterly profit of $11.7 billion in a reasonable perspective, then try these figures:

• Responding to the criticism that Exxon makes "$1,400 in profit per second," Tillerson replied: "we paid $4,000 a second in taxes, and we spent $15,000 a second in cost."
• According to the Wall Street Journal, ExxonMobil's profit margin was 10% in 2007. Comfortable? Yes. Outrageous? Hardly. The oil industry profit margin is 8.3%.
• Compare Exxon's 10% profit margin with the chemical industry (12.7%); or the computer industry (13.7%); or Pharmaceuticals (18.4%); or tobacco (19.1%); or long distance carriers (26.4%). Thank you to Carpe Diem blog for those figures.
• Take a look at Yahoo's Industry Summary, which displays current profit margins for all US industries. Oil ranks 60, meaning Oil is only the 60th most profitable industry in the United States.

I'm no economist, but to me, these figures put the debate over gas prices and profit margins in a more accurate context. I would ask those who support a windfall profits tax on the oil industry one question: why oil and not Microsoft (27.1% profit margin)?