Missing the real story

Different media outlets have different takes on Exxon Mobil’s second-quarter numbers. And almost all of them are missing the real story.

Falling production: That’s the real story. Down 7.8%, thanks to Hugo Chavez’s oil field grab in Venezuela, strikes in Nigeria and contracts with foreign governments that give them a bigger cut of output as oil prices rise.

Everyone except the reporters writing most of the stories about XOM’s Q2 numbers. Ask most of them (to say nothing of Congresscritters) how much of world oil reserves are under the control of Exxon Mobil, Chevron, BP, and Royal Dutch Shell, and I dread to think what numbers they’d probably come up with