美歐兩大石油公司利潤銳減

Profits at two of the world's biggest oil companies, ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell, have plummeted after tumbling international oil prices and weaker demand for energy battered revenues.

全球最大兩家石油公司——埃克森美孚(ExxonMobil)和荷蘭皇家殼牌公司(Royal Dutch Shell)——的利潤大幅下降，原因是國際油價大跌和需求減弱對它們的收入造成了重創(chuàng)。

Exxon, the largest US oil group, and Shell, the biggest in Europe, yesterday unveiled post-tax profits for the second quarter that were roughly a third of those a year ago.

美國最大的石油集團埃克森和歐洲老大殼牌昨日宣布，第二季度的稅后利潤約為去年同期的三分之一。

Peter Voser, Shell's chief executive who took over at the beginning of the month, warned that the company would need to make “substantial” job cuts to restore earnings. He said the company faced soft demand, excess capacity and high costs. “Conditions are likely to remain challenging for some time, and we are not banking on a quick recovery,” said Mr Voser.

本月初出任殼牌首席執(zhí)行官的彼得•沃瑟(Peter Voser)警告稱，該公司需要通過“大幅”減員來恢復盈利。他表示，殼牌面臨著疲弱的需求、過剩的產能和高企的成本。“未來一段時期的市場環(huán)境可能仍會富有挑戰(zhàn)性，我們并不寄望于迅速的復蘇，”沃瑟表示。

Rex Tillerson, Exxon's chairman and chief executive, said: “Global economic conditions continue to impact the energy industry both in the volatility of commodity prices and reduced demand for products.”

?？松麻L兼首席執(zhí)行官雷克斯•蒂爾森(Rex Tillerson)表示：“大宗商品價格的波動以及對產品需求的降低都反映出，全球經濟狀況正繼續(xù)沖擊能源產業(yè)。”

Both companies blamed the global economic crisis and softer demand for the collapse in their revenues.

兩家公司都將收入銳減歸咎于全球經濟危機和需求走軟。

The steep fall in profits follows a slide in oil prices from last year's record high of $147 a barrel to a low of $32. Yesterday, US benchmark crude West Texas Intermediate was trading at about $67.

利潤陡降之前，油價從去年每桶147美元的創(chuàng)紀錄高位下滑至每桶32美元的低點。昨日，美國基準原油價格——西得克薩斯中質原油(West Texas Intermediate)價格約為每桶67美元。

The effects of volatile prices were evident in Exxon's 66 per cent drop in net income to $3.95bn, the steepest fall in profits for more than a decade, and Shell's 70 per cent decline in post-tax profit to $3.24bn.

價格波動造成的影響顯而易見：?？松膬衾麧櫹陆?6%，至39.5億美元，為十幾年來的最大利潤降幅；殼牌的稅后利潤下降70%，至32.4億美元。

譯者/章晴