Interesting breakdown of the price of gas:

[Oblio13]

It's popular to vilify the oil companies for the price of gas, and there have been several threads here about strikes and such recently. Everybody from Hillary on down is jumping on the bandwagon. Today our newspaper published this enlightening break-down of where the money goes when you buy gas:


72% is the price of crude.

12% federal and state taxes

8% refiners

8% retailers

Average profit per $4 gallon of gas for the oil company: 10 cents.

Average profit per $4 gallon of gas for retailers: 10 cents.

Average profit per $4 gallon of gas for government: 48 cents.

Average profit margin for $4/gallon gas for oil companies: 2.5%


Exxon/Mobile and etc. have been posting huge profits because they're huge companies, not because they have huge profit margins.

Most of the profit from oil is going to the producing countries and our own government. The oil companies and retailers are tied for a distant third.

 

[seedcorn]

When gas prices rally up $.20/gal in 1 hour, did crude go up that much?

Oil companies are making 40% profits.......what newspaper did Bush buy to print that garbage? They are getting rich, that's OK, just don't tell me they are barely making anything.

Gas prices have went from 1.50 to 3.80 in Indiana in 8 years. Figure it out, big oil paid for Bush's election, it's pay back..... Whomever paid for our next presidents election, will be rewarded as well.

 

[Oblio13]

Quote:
Source?

I'm a stockholder in Exxon/Mobile, and I wish it was making 40%.

 

[seedcorn]

Ohio, 40% is hyperbole...........

This morning Exxon Mobil (XOM) reported on its quarterly 2007 profits. While many oil companies moaned about rising oil prices, Exxon proved that $90 a barrel oil (and above) is not a bad thing for Big Oil profits. MarketWatch reports on the record profits for Exxon:

Exxon Mobil on Friday reported its most lucrative quarter ever, as profit neared the $12 billion mark on a slight rise in adjusted oil production, capping off a year of record crude-oil prices.


Soaring oil prices lifted Chevron Corp.'s annual profit to $18.7 billion in 2007, the fourth consecutive year that the San Ramon company made record amounts of money.

Chevron, America's second-largest oil company, reported Friday that its annual profit jumped 9 percent from 2006, as crude oil prices reached their highest levels in 26 years. Sales topped $220.9 billion, up 5 percent from the year before.

Chevron's profit served as yet another milestone in this decade's historic increase in energy prices, one that has seen the cost of crude oil triple while gasoline prices have hit record heights.

Other companies have made even more. Exxon Mobil, the country's largest oil company, reported on Friday that its 2007 profit hit $40.6 billion, a 3 percent increase from 2006, while sales passed $404 billion. No American business has ever scored a higher profit.

2 different scources saying Oil companies are making record profits while energy prices soar. To find these articles, just Google "oil company profits". But if you do what you say you do, you already knew this. Which makes me question why would you begin this thread?????

 

[Oblio13]

Quote:
Because I like to have a perspective based on facts rather than emotion, and I have a problem with politicians whipping the masses into a frenzy with promises to punish success and redistribute wealth.

Of course the oil companies are making huge profits. They're enormous multi-national corporations dealing in something everyone desperately wants. That doesn't mean success is somehow inherently evil, or that they owe you.

I've done well with Exxon-Mobile stock, but I've done better with Whole Foods, Microsoft, Budweiser and Apple.

The facts indicate that if Big Oil is gouging you on gas, your own government is gouging you almost five times as badly.

 

[Buster]

I don't trust either of them- they are in each other's back pockets. Here we are descending into a recession and the oil companies seem to be the only ones making any money (from my perspective). The oil costs keep going up and as a result, so does everything attached to them. I guess the oil companies can go ahead and run the country into the ground in the name of making a record profit. They can't blame it on supply shortages- they control those themselves. All you have to do is drive through Montana and Wyoming and see all of the drilled and capped wells to know that they have access to more oil and choose not to tap it all in the name of making a profit.

Long live the federal government and big oil! They get bigger and the little guy gets smaller.

 

[redhead83402]

well, as long as the topic is open, let's add the whole corn-ethanol issue into it. Bio fuel as a whole sounds impressive, and in fact, WOULD be impressive, IF there were still enough to actually feed the masses AND fuel the world. This whole fuel issue, whether crude or bio, truly needs to be a wake-up call to our gas-guzzling world that relies so heavily on getting around by means other than our own 2 feet. That's not to say that there isn't call for traveling, going places, doing things ~ but how often do people make 10 trips to the store in one week, or drive their car when they could walk or ride a bike? Or even just choose to drive a gas guzzling vehicle around because their testosterone levels are compensating for something? As a whole, our nation relies so heavily on gas, what an easy method to control the masses ~
Or maybe not ~ {:>)=
~Red

 

[Oblio13]

Quote:
I agree completely. Unfortunately, I don't think there's a way to motivate people to be less wasteful with gas other than to make it expensive. If we had conserved fuel voluntarily before, we wouldn't be in this mess now. On the bright side, there'll be less pollution and less traffic from now on, and more petroleum left for the future.

 

[seedcorn]

Part of the energy solution is to tell oil companies and others, use the technology you've bought or give up the rights to it. I'm referring to solar energy. They don't use it but hold a lot of great patents on it's use.

The ethanol argument is an interesting dog chasing tale. Part of the problem is Government mandated pollution laws require use of ethanol. Part is that when this started gas was $2/gal and corn was under $2/bu. Part of it is the oil companies own ethanol plants. Part is oil companies under stand supply/demand and are using it. Part is try to build a refinery between $$$ to build, gov. regs and fighting whomever lives by wherever you want to build it. Part is we've shipped our jobs to third world countries and as they have more spendable income (or should I say income at all) they spend it on food and energy just like us.

 

[All about the EGG]

Look at the governments cut...we pay taxes once a year, why the gas tax? They love it when we blame big business and never hold them accountable.