As President Obama scrambles to stop an economy from collapsing, oil giant Exxon Mobil poked its head up today to say, “What economic problem? We’re doing pretty okay over here.” Well, not quite in those words. Instead, Exxon announced that in 2008, the company posted the highest profits for any American corporation, ever. Per the New York Times:

As oil prices rose to a record before having their steepest-ever drop, Exxon earned a $45.2 billion in 2008, up from $40.6 billion in 2007. The profit for the full-year came even as Exxon said Friday that its fourth-quarter income fell 33 percent as oil prices declined.

Okay, so income did fall in this last quarter (to a level not seen since 2005 Q2), so maybe Exxon wasn’t quite saying “We’re doing pretty good,” but they managed to post $1.55 a share, ten cents above analyst expectations. As well, other oil companies did not fare as well. Exxon just is better run, it seems.

‘Exxon has been extremely conservative,’ said Addison A. Armstrong, director of market research at Tradition Energy, an energy broker. ‘I expect they will continue to outperform the rest of their peers in this kind of market. They take the long view and they don’t get caught up in the short-term noise of the energy markets which sets them apart and protects them.’

I think what strikes me the most about all this is the sheer amount of oil Exxon has to sell to post profits like that. I mean, look at this quote from the article:

Exxon pumped about 2.47 million barrels a day of oil in the fourth quarter and produced 9.8 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day.

2.47 million barrels of oil, a day. That is is a hell of a lot of oil. I thought we were trying to use less these days? Maybe? Had I heard something about that? Yeah, I could have sworn I heard something about that. takepart to learn how to use less gas (it’s the best action item I could think of).