On Friday Exxon Mobil Corp. announced the biggest quarterly and annual profits ever recorded in the U.S history by a traded oil company.

With a $40.6 billion for the year Exxon Mobil Comp. succeeded in beating its own record of $39.5 billion it set in 2006.

The company based in Irving, Texas also said that it had recorded for the last three months of the year, the fourth quarter, a net income of $11.7 billion thus beating again its own record of $10.71 billion, registered for the fourth quarter of 2005, Chicago Tribune reports.

Even though this doesn’t come as a big surprise if you see that in the fourth quarter oil prices were about $90 a barrel, that’s 50 percent higher that a year earlier.

On January 3 the crude oil was at $100.09 but since then it has fallen 10 percent.

The earnings recorded show that a share was at $2.13 meaning a 14 percent rise from last year, when the company earned $1.76 a share or $10.25 billion.  

In the fourth quarter revenue rose 30 percent to $116.6 billion from 2005’s $90 billion.

Sale rose to $404.5 billion, a little lower than the figure of the U.S. Defense Department's fiscal 2007 budget.

Exxon Vice President Ken Cohen said: "Over the last few years, our industry has always been the focus of attention, and I doubt that will change here over the short term,"

Chairman Rex Tillerson said: "We continued to supply crude oil and natural gas volumes to meet the world's energy needs through disciplined development and operation of our globally diverse resource base," the Associated Press informs.

Exxon produces 3 percent of the oil in the world.

Also on Friday, Chevron Corp., the second largest oil-company in the country announced that for the fourth quarter it has recorded earnings of $4.88 billion from the $3.77 billion a year earlier. Revenue of the company rose to $61.41 billion.

After the announcements on Friday Sen. Charles Schumer, New York Democrat, a member of the Senate Finance Committee asked for the Congress to o repeal tax breaks for the oil industry.