Oil companies do indeed make billions of dollars.

A recent TV ad by Majority Action attacks U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole for receiving contributions from the oil industry, which notes that "big oil companies are making billions at our expense."

As part of our usual fact-checking duties here at the Dome, we checked the numbers mentioned in the ad, and they are mostly accurate.

For comparison's sake, the companies and their previous earnings are below, based on information from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Chevron
2004: $13.3 billion
2005: $14.1 billion
2006: $17.1 billion
2007: $18.7 billion

BP
2004: $15.7 billion
2005: $19.6 billion
2006: $21.1 billion
2007: $21.2 billion

ExxonMobil
2004: $25.3 billion
2005: $36.1 billion
2006: $39.5 billion
2007: $40.6 billion

Note that the 2007 earnings we found are slightly higher for BP than the $20.8 billion cited by Majority Action. The ad cites a Feb. 6 article in the Charleston Post-Courier that we could not locate, although a report in the Houston Chronicle cites a similar number.