It's Exxon's highest quarterly profit since the US$7.82 billion earned in the last three months of 2008.

Exxon set a record for quarterly earnings in the U.S. of US$14.83 billion in the third quarter of 2008 after oil prices spiked to near US$150 per barrel that summer. Oil prices dropped dramatically as the global recession took hold, and Exxon's profits followed, hitting a six-year low in the second quarter of 2009.

The world's largest publicly traded oil company said earnings rose to US$1.60 per share in this year's second quarter, from US$3.95 billion, or 81 cents per share, in the year-ago period.

Revenue increased 24 percent to US$92.5 billion.