On "our" gas pumps, they place a little decal of a pie graph showing the breakdown of the price of gas in %'s.

I can't remember exactly, but from what I recall, one-tenth of 1% actually goes to the selling country, and then the remaining 99.99% goes for the different gov't taxes, advertising, local mark-ups, retail fees, blah blah blah.

Obviously I am exaggerating somewhat with my number but I'm not that far off.

IMHO, I believe 'most' of the oil producing countries who sell to America want America to be successful.
All these little oil rich nations make enormous amounts of cash from their oil, and much of it gets invested in American companies.

In a way, the oil countries and the Americans are all in it together (business)
and as long as the oil producing countries around the world continue to take "the dollar" as payment for their oil, all will be ok, but if they all decided to start taking the Euro" (which I hope will not happen), then the chit will hit the economic fan.

This is my theory and I am sticking to it.
(If Burt can offer a crazy ****amamie theory, so can I) LOL

Habibi

 

I don't know the full story but, my hunch is that UFO's are involved in some way/shape/form.

 

LMAO...

Your just happy you could finally post your new image…

 

truth is, higher demand in China means prices will never hit $1 a gallon EVER again. China is being flooded with cheap oil to fuel the new auto culture they are developing. OPEC think they are selling heroin. Get them hooked and then jack up the price.

So the "net net" of it all?

Blame China.

 

Well, besides the supply/demand issues, we really need to look at the government's role.

I've heard that the gas station owner is lucky to make $0.01 per gallon in profit on the gas. Sure, he sells candy bars, etc... But when I fill up and get 20 gallons at $2.00 each, he makes $0.20.

The oil company - I'll guess they make 10% profit on ALL their costs. Let's say it costs them $1.50/gallon currently to produce and deliver my fuel, so they make $0.15/gallon. For that, they have found the oil, extracted it from the ground, transported it to the refinery, refined it, and shipped it to my local outlet, and complied with gobs and gobs of government regulations every step of the way. That's a lot of work for $0.15.

How much are the taxes my gallon of fuel? Combined, the California state sales tax and federal excise taxes are far more per gallon than the estimated $0.15 in oil company profits. I know what the oil company had to do to earn their money. But what did the government do for their cut? The truth is the government makes far more 'profit' from fuel sales than the oil companies do.

 

A little information on gas prices:

Primer on gas prices

Also remember we are still not paying a record high for fuel prices. That happen in 1981, when adjusted for inflation the cost of 87 octance in 1981 was around $2.99 a gallon...

Prices now, again adjusted for inflation are pretty decent:

History of gas prices

 

Using 01XLTSport's first link above, it appears that the total taxes per gallon at current retail prices in California are approximately $0.52 per gallon on regular.

Kind of sad that the state and federal government makes approx. 52 times as much profit per gallon as the guy who owns the gas station, and approx 400% more per gallon than the oil comany profits.

Just something to keep in mind next time you hear a politician lambasting 'greedy' oil companies and oil service companies.

 

another way of looking at the oil shortage.............

our stockpiles of oil are in Texas and Alaska

and our dipstick is in Washington

 

We do as of today, gasprices have never been that high.
Shell raised gasprices again today.

90 Octane $5.906/US Gallon
93 Octane $6.150/US Gallon