ExxonMobil has set an all-time earning record with second-quarter net income that reached $11.68 billion, up 14 percent year on year despite rising supplier costs, the production of less oil and gas and the payment of five-percent more income tax.

Upstream earnings were $10 billion, or up $4 billion over the year-ago period with record earnings on sales of crude and natural gas.

Oil and production was down eight percent over the same time a year ago, hit by Nigerian strife and Venezuelen expropriations.

Meanwhile, “increased production from projects in west Africa and the North Sea was more than offset by mature field decline and higher maintenance activity” a statement said somewhat ominously.