Exxon boosts capital budget but takes $2 billion charge from XTO deal

By Ernest Scheyder HOUSTON (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp boosted its 2017 capital budget on Tuesday by about 14 percent on a bet that crude prices have stabilized, but posted its lowest quarterly profit since 1999 as it took a $2 billion charge from the purchase of natural gas producer XTO Energy. The world's largest publicly traded oil producer wrote down more than $2 billion from its 2009 buyout of natural gas producer XTO Energy, a deal worth roughly $30 billion at the time. The writedown is a