As the quest for alternative fuels is accelerating, oil companies are able to increase their profits boosted by surging oil and gasoline prices. The world’s largest publicly traded oil company, Exxon Mobil, today posted a Q1 profit of $10.1 billion on revenue of $116.8 billion. This was the second highest profit ever posted by any U.S. corporation, just behind the $11.7 billion Exxon Mobil posted for the fourth quarter of 2007.

Analysts were still disappointed and expected revenue of about $124 billion and a profit of about $10.7 billion.

Exxon Mobil shares fell more than 4% to below $89 in morning trading. Exxon Mobil has a market capitalization of $475.3 billion.