Berkshire rebounds from 2009 $1.5 billion 1Q loss to post a preliminary $3.6 billion profit

Berkshire Hathaway has rebounded from last year’s first-quarter loss and earned $3.6 billion as the economic recovery began and Berkshire absorbed Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad.

CEO Warren Buffett shared preliminary first-quarter results with shareholders Saturday at Berkshire’s annual meeting. The full report will be released Friday.

Last year’s $1.5 billion loss included a $241 million loss on the sale of investments and a $1.9 billion charge from writing down a ConocoPhillips investment.

The addition of Burlington Northern more than doubled Berkshire’s regulated businesses unit income to $555 million. The unit also includes utilities.

Buffett says Berkshire’s results show the economy is improving because manufacturing and retail income grew 85 percent to $477 million.

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Exxon Mobile Q1 profits up by 38%

Exxon Mobil has said its first quarter profits rose 38% from the same period a year earlier to $6.3 billion.

The profits excluded a $200m charge to pay for changes in US healthcare legislation. Amid high oil prices of around $85 a barrel, Exxon had been expected by analysts to report slightly stronger.

In 2009 Exxon recorded the largest profit of any publicly-listed company in the world, a whopping $40.6 billion, boosted by record high oil prices.

The Texas-based company said oil production increased around 4.5% in the first quarter compared with the same period a year ago.

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Exxon Mobile joins Turkish Black Sea exploration accord

Exxon Mobile Corporation announced Tuesday it signed a deal with Brasil's Petrobras to partake in the consortium with Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO)in a quest to find oil in the Black Sea.Exxon said that under the deal it purchased 25 percent share of rights over a 3 million hectare area in Sinop, Ayancik and Carsamba shores, with Petrobras holding 25 percent and TPAO 50 percent shares in the consortium.

However, the deal needs to be ratified by the Turkish government to take effect.

In April 2009, Turkey's TPAO and Brazil's Petrobras signed an agreement for the exploration of oil in the Black Sea.

Recently the massive deep-water oil platform "Leiv Eiriksson", which set off from Norway months ago, passed through the straits and reached Sinop, to explore oil at a depth of 6,000 meters with a daily cost of up to 1 million U.S. dollars.

The platform will stay in the Black Sea for five years, according to the semi-official Anatolia news agency.Turkish officials are very hopeful about drilling operations in the Black Sea which is believed to have huge underwater oil and natural gas reserves.

Recent seismic researches estimate a 10-billion barrel oil reserve in the Black Sea.

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