HOUSTON – Exxon Mobil Corp. posted the largest annual profit by a U.S. company – $40.6 billion in 2007 – as the world’s largest publicly traded oil company benefited from historic crude prices at year’s end.

Exxon also set a U.S. record for the biggest quarterly profit, posting net income of $11.7 billion for the final three months of 2007, besting its own mark of $10.71 billion in the fourth quarter of 2005.