Exxon Mobil posted a $19.3 billion profit in 2009, an imposing figure in corporate America but down 57 percent from the all-time record the company set during the previous year's roller coaster in prices.

The profit report on Monday coincided with the release of President Obama's fiscal 2011 budget proposal, which would rescind tax breaks for the oil and gas industry worth $36.5 billion over 10 years.

"This is an industry that does more than its fair share," Exxon Mobil's vice president for public and government affairs, Kenneth Cohen, said in a conference call with reporters Monday. He said that the industry employs more than 9 million Americans and accounts for 7.5 percent of U.S. gross domestic product.

But the administration said in its budget proposal that "oil and gas subsidies are costly to the American taxpayer and do little to incentivize production or reduce energy prices." It added that "removing these subsidies would reduce greenhouse gas emissions" and the money at stake "represents only a small percentage of domestic oil and gas revenues -- about one percent over the coming decade."

Exxon Mobil also reported a $6.1 billion profit in the fourth quarter, down 23 percent from the previous year, as it suffered a $287 million loss on its U.S. refining and marketing activities in the final three months of the year. But it was Exxon Mobil's best quarter of 2009 as crude oil prices rebounded, chemical earnings jumped and the company's foreign natural gas production grew.

The results for Exxon Mobil, the world's largest private oil company, mirrored industry trends. Rising oil prices in recent months have bolstered profits at companies with crude oil production; Exxon Mobil said it received an average of $72.23 a barrel for crude oil in the fourth quarter, nearly twice the first-quarter average and up 42 percent from the fourth quarter of 2008.

Natural gas prices, however, have remained low, a result of the weak global economy and increasing production from U.S. shale formations and Middle East liquefied-natural-gas terminals. Exxon Mobil said the average price it received for natural gas was down 39 percent from the fourth quarter of 2008.

The anemic global economy also weakened demand for gasoline and diesel fuel, thus squeezing profits margins at the retail level. David Rosenthal, Exxon Mobil's vice president for investor relations, called it "a challenging environment." Only two years ago, industry analysts were blaming high pump prices in part on the lack of refining capacity. But the Energy Information Administration said this week that U.S. refineries were running at just 78.4 percent of capacity, a 21-year low.

Last week, Valero Energy, the largest U.S. refiner, reported its third straight quarterly loss and slashed its dividend as the economy continued to hurt demand for diesel fuel. Valero closed its refinery in Aruba in August, shut down its money-losing Delaware plant in November and put its Paulsboro, N.J., refinery up for sale.

Chevron, the second-biggest U.S. energy company, said Friday that its fourth-quarter profit dropped 37 percent as plunging demand for diesel and gasoline overwhelmed gains from higher oil production and prices.

In many respects, Exxon Mobil's financial results showed continued strength. The company boosted capital spending to $8.3 billion in the fourth quarter, bringing its total 2009 capital spending level to a record $27.1 billion, a 4 percent increase over 2008 levels. Rosenthal said the company was pressing ahead with exploration and development programs outside the United States, including costly wells drilled offshore of the Philippines, Brazil and Libya.

The company said it was turning more and more of its attention to what the oil industry called "unconventional" oil and gas supplies. In December, Exxon said it would spend $41 billion to buy XTO Energy, an independent U.S. firm with substantial holdings in U.S. shale formations where recent technological advances have made exploitation feasible.

Exxon has also spent billions developing facilities for liquefied natural gas in Qatar, where increased production helped balance the natural decline of its oil and gas fields elsewhere. The company hopes to export liquefied natural gas to the United States, Europe and China.