They can take all that super money, hold onto it for future needs for when profits fall, sink a few oil rigs in the ocean at a billion dollars each. $12 billion is not much money these days. Or should they not be be allowed to maintain profits and be forced to borrow tens of billions as they need it, increasing costs, so they can make a 2% profit?
stfu already, if you don't like paying $3.50 for gas then ride fucking bicycle. exxon can charge what they want, just like the supermarket and drugstore and your dentist can charge whatever they want. god i hate cry babies
I can't wait until gas hits 4, 5 or even 6 dollars so all these little shits can whine some more. Guess what, no one gives a shit. Trade in the SUV and take the fucking bus like the rest of the dirtbags. That huge McMansion which requires a 50 mile drive to civilization doesn't seem like such a good deal now, does it?
Exxon made $11B because we paid $11B, and it was agreed upon by both seller and buyer. I hate paying $3 a gallon for gas, but I agree to it and buy it anyway. Wanna know something else? They can jack the price up to $5 a gallon and I'm still going to buy it. I'm nowhere near ready to start riding a bicycle. If you don't like the profits they're making, stop buying their product. It's that simple.
what i mean is that exxon is involved in every process of the oil industry, not just Refining (VLO main Bizz is the refining).. exxon makes tons of exploration deals worlwide, storage, transport, retail sales etc etc etc.. anyway, the world is richer today than 10 years ago. records worldwide sales of Cars, electronics, plastics, scraps,planes, boats, lipstick, tires etc etc etc.. you need crude oil to make almost everything this day, even perfume. World crude oil demand has grown big time in the past 5 years (maybe more) Demand growth is highest in the developing world like brazil, china, india etc etc etc. As countries develop higher living standards drive up energy use, most often of oil. Thriving economies such as China and India are quickly becoming large oil consumers, soon they will surpass the US as the number one consumer. One Big problem is the government bureaucracies. With domestic demand for refined products accelerating and outpacing our ability to meet those needs with domestic supplies, coupled with the ever-increasing global demand for these same products, market volatility will continue. Although this situation is unsatisfactory, it can only be alleviated with increased supply. And This when the Goverment became a BIG problem. The US has not build one refinery in 31 years, due to the extreme politicial burocracy and the extreme low profit margin (and because is to expensive). worldwide refineries are operating at near-maximum capacity. refinery utilization rose to 90.2%, due to the end of widespread maintenance resulting from last year, and Refiners have also completed both the seasonal product turnaround and, among some, the transition from MTBE to ethanol use in RFG. The largest U.S. refiner accounts (VLO) for just 13% of the nation total capacity, and large, integrated companies own and operate only about 10% of retail outlets. No one company, or group of companies, sets prices. Rather, the laws of supply and demand dictate competitive behavior and determine pricing in the U.S. refining industry. In contrast, Archer Daniel Midland, the largest producer of fuel ethanol in the U.S., controls nearly 25% of the U.S. ethanol market. While high crude oil prices, a tight supply/demand balance and minimal spare capacity have contributed to high gasoline prices, both Federal government action and inaction have complicated the supply picture. For example, the 2005 EPACT did not provide limited liability relief for MTBE, which has impacted supply. With the end of the oxygenate requirement, refiners have been phasing out of MTBE at an accelerated rate. Congress could have encouraged greater gasoline supply this year by granting limited liability relief, giving refiners a reason to extend their use of MTBE instead of the opposite. Another Thing, NOT all crude Oil is equal, Our Oil is mostly sweet crude eich is much easier to refine than sour crude ( 80% of venezuela oil is sour for example). so if china wants to buy Oil from venezuela, venezuela has to bring that oil to the US to be refine, cause China dont have the capacity to refine that type of crude, so its very expensive for china to buy Oil from venezuela and is too expensive for us to refine that type of crude. Bureaucratic red tape (tens of thousands of regulations) all fostered through numerous bills passed by Congress and imposed upon the states. This has made oil refinery construction less than a cost effective investment. Thus, fuel prices continue to rise via Congressional interference not depleted oil reserves.
We are just analyzing a company's profitmargins. What is the problem with that?If you don't like this thread, stop reading it. It is that simple. And by the way I buy BP products....
Understood, but that was true 3-4 years ago too. So if the world actually produces LESS crude oil that let's say in 2005 (so far the peak) the only explanation for a windfall profit is the higher prices, even if the profitmargin remained the same, around 9%. Here is a report from 3 years ago about their earnings, the situation was exactly the same: http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/29309/newsDate/1-Feb-2005/story.htm Also why the CEOs didn't use this argument when they were asked by the Congress? And here is an article from 1987, it is clear that the earnings has to do with the crude prices, even according to them: "The Exxon Corporation and the Shell Oil Company yesterday reported sharp declines in first-quarter earnings, and the Phillips Petroleum Company posted a loss. Each of the three companies cited the slump in crude-oil prices as the main reason for its poor showing." http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE1DC113DF936A15757C0A961948260
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exxon_valdez_oil_spill#Litigation Maybe they can afford to pay for the spill from 1989