Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest company by market value, posted its largest profit in almost three years as soaring gasoline prices fuelled discontent among consumers and policy-makers. With U.S. motorists paying the most for gasoline since prices reached a record $4.11 a gallon in the summer of 2008, Exxon said Thursday that its first-quarter net income jumped 69 per cent to $10.7 billion (all figures U.S.). The Irving, Texas-based company is sitting on a cash pile of $13.2 billion, even after distributing more than $7 billion to shareholders in buybacks and dividends. President Barack Obama has called for an end to decades-old tax breaks for domestic oil and natural-gas drilling. He urged Saudi Arabia, the world's largest crude exporter, to help rein in surging world crude prices by boosting output. Exxon said higher taxes would drain funds the company needs to find new oil and gas fields. "Over the past five years, we incurred a total U.S. tax expense of almost $59 billion, which is $18 billion more than we earned in the United States during the same period," Kenneth Cohen, Exxon's vice president of public and government affairs, said in a blog post on the company's website. "Critics often try to ignore these facts by saying the oil and gas industry receives 'subsidies.' But what they really mean is that they want to increase our taxes by taking away long-standing deductions for our industry while leaving these same deductions in place for other sectors of the economy." Exxon's expenditures for new wells and production platforms rose 24 per cent during the first three months of this year to $6.9 billion, the company said Thursday. New projects such as West Qurna 1 in Iraq contributed to a 10 per cent increase in oil and gas production. Exxon was the latest oil company to report expanding first-quarter profits. Earlier, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, the world's second-largest gasoline producer after Exxon, said net income rose 30 per cent to $6.3 billion. Occidental Petroleum Corp., the largest onshore oil producer in the continental U.S., said first-quarter profit increased 46 per cent to $1.56 billion. ConocoPhillips, the thirdlargest U.S. oil company, Wednesday reported a 44 per cent profit gain. Chevron Corp., the No. 2 U.S. energy producer, is expected to report a 31 per cent increase in net income when results are announced today. "The government should tax the windfall profits of the oil giants and invest the money in renewable energy programs so that we reduce our dependence on oil and dirty energy," said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, a Washingtonbased consumer advocacy group.

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