You know how I feel about this sort of thing
Playing with statistics again, Mr. Brosz? For shame!
Profit on income isn't the measure the petroleum industry uses when it's pitching to the investment community. Instead, it uses return on capital employed (ROCE), which the analysts consider a more meaningful measure of financial health in its industry. According to the footnote in ExxonMobil's financial statement:
ExxonMobil believes that return on average capital employed (ROCE) is the most relevant metric for measuring financial performance in a capital-intensive business such as the Upstream. ["Upstream" refers to oil and gas exploration and production; "Downstream" is refining and distribution.]
ROCE is a direct measure of the cumulative contribution from all of our Upstream competitive advantages, and in 2005, has continued to distinguish the performance of our Upstream business relative to competitors.
ExxonMobil 2005 Annual Report; bracketed definition of terms added
Care to try and guess ExxonMobil's 2005 ROCE? Higher than 9.5...10%? Nope.
15%? Nope
20%? Still way low
30%???? Now you're getting close. In fact, EM's 2005 ROCE was 31%. That's the number that ExxonMobil itself believes we should be looking at.
No matter how many times I say it, nobody seems to listen: There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.
(Note: The part of Benjamin Disraeli is being played by Robert)