We know that Byron Dorgan’s been all over the fact that oil companies have been unusually profitable when oil prices were high.  Now is he going to be calling for a subsidy?

Energy stocks have taken a beating as crude oil prices plummeted this week, but oil producers will really feel the pain on the bottom line, threatening to wipe out billions of dollars in profits.

If this week’s $5.50 oil price drop is sustained over the year, Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM.N: Quote, Profile , Research) would lose nearly $3 billion in profit—about $540 million for every dollar off the price of oil per barrel, analysts said.

“I don’t think many companies, if any, can offset a 10 percent decline in the average crude price,” said Howard Weil analyst Gene Gillespie, who believes oil company earnings could fall by up to 10 percent this year from 2006.