Exxon Mobil reported the fattest operating profit in U.S. corporate history Thursday but took a beating anyway — from politicians railing against Big Oil, drivers bleeding cash at the pump and investors who expected more.

The world’s largest publicly traded oil company turned a profit of $11.7 billion for the second quarter, lifted mostly by meteoric crude prices. Its earnings were up 14 percent from a year ago.

Total sales: $138 billion — roughly the gross domestic product of Hungary.

Henry Hubble, Exxon Mobil’s vice president for investor relations, said the record profits “highlight the quality of our integrated business model and disciplined investment approach.”

For the most part, the plaudits ended there.

Despite their heft, Exxon’s profits were a disappointment on Wall Street, and the company’s stock slumped nearly 5 percent. Almost the entire energy industry was walloped by investors Thursday.

European rival Royal Dutch Shell posted its own record profit across the Atlantic, with earnings of $11.6 billion. Its American depository receipts tumbled nearly 4 percent in afternoon trading.

Growing investor apprehension can be found at the heart of what the oil industry does — finding and producing oil and natural gas.

Exxon Mobil’s overall output fell 8 percent in the second quarter from a year ago — a significant blow for a company that generates more than two-thirds of its earnings from oil and gas production.

For Exxon Mobil, which produces 3 percent of the world’s oil, finding new deposits of hydrocarbons is getting harder and harder. State-run oil companies like those in Saudi Arabia and Venezuela control about 80 percent of known global oil reserves. It’s difficult, if not impossible, for Exxon and its competitors to get any part of that oil.

“It all comes down to production,” said Brian Youngberg, an analyst with financial services firm Edward Jones. “This is the second straight quarter that production came in below expectations. Investors are going to be questioning when they can turn that around.”

While the oil companies insist they’re trying to find new oil that might bring down gas prices, the money they spend on exploration pales compared with what they’ve spent in recent years on stock buybacks and dividends.

In the most recent quarter, Exxon Mobil said it spent $8 billion buying back stock, versus $7 billion on capital and exploration expenditures. The company has said it expects to spend $25 billion to $30 billion on capital and exploration projects each of the next five years.

The American Petroleum Institute, the industry’s trade association, said Big Oil earnings are not out of line compared with earnings in other industrial sectors.

For example, the institute notes, Exxon’s earnings amount to about 8.5 cents per dollar of sales, versus 11.6 cents for the companies making up the Dow Jones industrials.