David Rosenthal
Management
Good morning, and welcome to Exxon Mobil’s third quarter earnings call and webcast. The focus of this call is Exxon Mobil’s financial and operating results for the third quarter of 2013. I will refer to the slides that are available through the Investors section of our website. Before we go further I would like to draw your attention to our cautionary statement shown on slide two. Moving to slide three, we provide an overview of some of the external factors impacting our results. Global economic growth remained constrained in the third quarter with mixed performance across the region. The U.S. economy continues to grow at a moderate pace, following an upward revision of second quarter growth. China’s growth improved modestly while European economies remain uncertain. Energy markets delivered mixed results compared to the second quarter with higher crude oil and lower natural gas prices Global industry refining margins deteriorated significantly reflecting moderate demand and improved capacity availability. Chemical commodity product margins strengthened during the quarter on lower feedstock costs and increased U.S. demand. Turning now to the third quarter financial results as shown on slide four. Exxon Mobil’s third quarter earnings were $7.9 billion or a $1.79 per share. The corporation distributed $5.8 billion to shareholders in the third quarter through dividends and share purchases to reduce shares outstanding. Of that total $3 billion was used to purchase shares. CapEx in the third quarter was $10.5 billion and $32.6 billion for the first nine months of 2013 in-line with anticipated spending plans. Cash flow from operations and asset sales was $13.6 billion. At the end of the third quarter cash totaled $5.7 billion and debt was $21.3 billion. The next slide provides additional detail on third quarter sources and uses of funds. Over the quarter cash increased from $5 billion…