Exxon Mobil Corp., the world’s largest company, posted its biggest quarterly profit in more than two years as energy demand boosted oil and fuel prices.

Fourth-quarter net income rose 53 percent to $9.25 billion, or $1.85 a share, from $6.1 billion, or $1.27 a share, a year earlier, Exxon said in a statement Monday. Per-share earnings were 25 cents more than the average estimate of six analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

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Exxon has a presence in big cities and small towns like Carnegie, Pa., where its sign adorns a local mini-market. The Associated Press

Oil and natural-gas output from Exxon’s wells rose 19 percent during the fourth quarter to the equivalent of 4.97 million barrels a day, the most in the 128-year history of the company. Refining rebounded from a loss a year ago as demand for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel rose 3.5 percent, widening margins from processing crude into fuels.

“They’re hitting their production growth at exactly the right time,” Jason Gammel, an analyst at Macquarie Capital Europe, told Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop with Betty Liu” on Monday. “Their production is going to be up over 7 percent this year, and when you’re doing that into the face of a rising commodity-price environment, the earnings and cash-flow effects are just magnified.”

Fourth-quarter sales climbed 17 percent to $105.2 billion. For the full year, Exxon’s revenue was $383.2 billion, a figure that exceeds the gross domestic product of Thailand, Denmark or Chile.

Spending on new oil platforms, liquefied gas plants, exploratory drilling and refinery repairs jumped 19 percent to $32.2 billion last year, the company said in the written statement. Exxon plans to spend $5 billion to buy back its shares this quarter, after spending that amount on share repurchases in the fourth quarter.

Gammel said he expects the company to maintain the $5 billion quarterly buyback pace for the rest of this year.

Last year, Exxon made its biggest acquisition since 1999, buying XTO Energy as part of Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson’s expansion of its natural-gas portfolio.

Exxon, based in Irving, Texas, tripled gas production in the United States as a result of the XTO deal and other purchases, including Ellora Energy. Gas accounted for 49 percent of Exxon’s global production during the last three months of 2010, up from 43 percent a year earlier.

The company, which traces its roots to John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust of the 1880s, signed a $1 billion accord last week joining Russia’s OAO Rosneft to drill for crude in the Black Sea.

Chevron Corp., the second-largest U.S. energy company, last week said profit from the last three months of 2010 rose 72 percent to $5.3 billion, a record for the company’s fourth quarter.

ConocoPhillips, the third-biggest U.S. oil company, said last week that fourth-quarter profit rose 59 percent to $2.04 billion as chemical demand increased and higher oil prices offset a slump in output.

BP reports quarterly earnings today, and Royal Dutch Shell releases earnings Thursday.

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