Oil is only one slice of the biznaz. Less we forget about its natural-gas and power-marketing business. Refining, distribution and marketing businesses and chemical business bring in nice cash as well.

 

I don't have all the numbers to plug in. I know what I know.

Exxon quarterly profit.
Exxon portion of market.
Price paid at pump.
Average State and Fed taxes per gallon.
Exxon has (NO) debt as of 2005.

Taxes average 40 cents per gallon.
Exxon profit per gallon come to about $1.44 per gallon

Subtract $1.84 from what you pay at the pump and that's what it cost per gallon to get it from the dinosaur to your tank.

 

I'm telling ya they are being marketed as the new fuel pills.

Tic-Tacs: Great for fuel mileage and tastes great too.

Here's where the gouging is going on. Do you know the mark-up on these things?

 

You do see the hole in this story, right?

One company cannot make a $25 billion profit in one quarter
when the entire annual profit for the industry is $18 billion.

We know how much gas we use and Mr Will has claimed the profit per gallon is 13 cents.

 

gauging has gotten a little ridiculous right now.

i cant stand mobile stations, their gas sucks and they gauge to **** at their stations.

a sunoco gas station down the road from me is at $3.11 a gallon.
the mobile down the road from the sunoco is $3.26 a gallon, and people still go to the mobile .

i dont understand it.

 

Frankly I haven't read any of the reports.

I figure they are scamming somehow, the gov't is scamming somehow, OPEC is scamming somehow.

I pump my gas, buy my tic tacs and go on my way, confident in the fact that I ain't the only one who is taking one for the team.

 

You're making the false assumption that gasoline is the only product the oil companies market. They have literally hundreds of other products, from motor oil to plastics, that will add to their profit total.

 

Then it's safe to assume that gasoline represents less than 10 percent of oil company profits.

ok

 

Exactly. Diversify.

 

The real rip in the whole thing is the one getting money out of the deal and putting nothing in - the government. In Wisconsin, between the feds and state it's about $.54 per gallon. Which is disgusting. Our governor (tax and spend Doyle) wants to hold the oil companies responsible for taking ridiculous profits, and is proposing a $.05 increase to the gas tax.

And yes, gas is a small percentage of the oil companies profit picture.

 

Going along the lines of what Bryndon stated earlier (that North America is sitting on large reserves of oil), I put forth this little tidbit. Both my grandfather and an uncle of mine work(ed) in the oil industry in the Gulf of Mexico, out of Louisiana. Both of them have stated to me, at different times, that the companies have different "plots" already drilled/capped. When the prices are high, the companies would go back and begin to take out of multiple holes. As the prices eased, holes would be capped again.

And the "refining capacity" is a whole other ball of wax.

Does anyone remember that Gov. Bush in FL a couple of years ago almost sold oil rights off of FL's coast to a Chinese company, since the FL greenies didn't want to allow the drilling to take place?

Politicians who work for us, and not their pocketbook, are what's needed right now! To me, the tax on gas (and other things not mentioned here) levied by states and the federal government are absurd. They do no work, yet they are allowed to collect (as of right now, in NC for example) 13.3% of the price of a gallon of gas.

 

So if supply/demand is driving the price up; and the problem with the supply is not enough refining capacity; why is it that every single gas station you pull into has plenty of gasoline to sell to you. Seems that if refining capacity was really the problem, some stations would be without gasoline to sell.

 

Here's where the cost gets tricky - now you need to start looking at and understand trading in "futures". I don't know that I understand them enough to explain fully, but it's basically legalized gambling on what prices will do.

Now, thinking about that, there may be some people on Wall Street making a bundle on futures right now.

 

You guys have got this all wrong.

Stop clouding this up with reason.

Turn on the big, five thousand dollar, flat pannel TV.

Turn the station, one of about a thousand that your hundred fifty dollar a month cable bill pays for, to CNN or MSNBC.

Repete after me:

The oil companies are gouging. The oil companies are gouging. The oil companies are gouging.

Now. Bring your fourty five thousand dollar, gas guzzeling, mamouth, pick up truck to the gas station.

Fill the tank while chanting: the oil companies are gouging.

Now go to the local 99Resturaunt. Buy a five dollar beer and a thirty dollar meal for yourself.

Feel better?

 

I look forward to higher gas prices.

Nothing would make me happier, the sooner the better.

I should have known you you right vader, they made the 25 billion selling tick-tacks.
They are almost giving the gas away, according to George Will and most everyone here.

Now that I've been schooled, I'd like to send a message of thanks to all of Big Oil for only taking 13 cents per gallon in profits.
Thanks you, I mean it, thanks for not gouging us folks.

I can see why so many proudly carry your jock strap.