Oil companies profit

[minavasht]

What is the profit from 1 gallon of gas?
What will the price be if the gas was sold at cost i.e. the oil industry was nationalized?

[orangerevolution]

1. Fascism is the repub. domain

let's not bring that up here.

[Tommy_J]

3. I think many people would like to know the current profit/gallon

[unpossibles]

4. not fascism - in fact, the opposite of fascism

Fascism would be the oil companies and other industries running the government (ahem).

When the government nationalizes natural resources, that is closer to socialism or communism, which would be the opposite end of the spectrum.

Honestly, considering that oil is a resource which effects every single aspect of American life and economy, perhaps nationalizing it is not a bad idea. It did wonders for the economies of more than one South American country.

[minavasht]

5. I am just trying to figure

what is the best case scenario - the gas is sold at cost.
Will there be any big difference?
BTW, I just stumbled on this site http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/ , it turns out we don't really need that much oil to commute.

[Richard Steele]

15. Buy a dictionary and have someone show you how to use it. nm

[rurallib]

2. corollary question - What is the price that the oil companies

actually pay for a barrel of oil? I can't believe that all the oil that say Exxon processes today will cost them $120.
As for the profit on a gallon of gas what I have heard is @ 10% so @ 34cents now. Do not know if that is true.

[unpossibles]

6. not sure, but they are DISAPPOINTED about their current earnings/growth

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/business/01oil-web.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

For Exxon Mobil, $10.9 Billion Profit Disappoints
Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, said Thursday that its first-quarter net income rose 17 percent, boosted by surging oil prices.

But even as it posted the second-most profitable quarter in its history, Exxon’s earnings managed to disappoint investors because of a drop in oil production. Shares were down about 5 percent Thursday after the company missed earnings estimates by a dime a share.
...
While energy companies have no control over the price of oil, which is set on international futures markets, they have benefited from the rally in commodity markets. Exxon, for example, earned over $163 billion from 2003 to 2007. Oil prices more than quadrupled during that period.
...
Exxon continued its longstanding program to buy back its shares. In the first quarter, the company spent $8 billion to reduce the number of its shares. Including dividend payments, the company gave $9.9 billion to shareholders, up $1.1 billion from last year.

I'm not sure the profit margin of a gallon of gas has much weight - it is lower than for some other goods/services, but how many other goods/services are tied to food and industry and essentially almost every single American? Even if we choose to not drive or live off the energy grid, we're still stuck in the rut of every product being tied to the price of oil.

[spin]

7. A primer on the cost of gasoline...

http://www.eia.doe.gov/bookshelf/brochures/gasolinepricesprimer/eia1_2005primerM.html

[DadOf2LittleAngels]

8. Here is at 3.00 per gallon

http://www.fromtheheartland.org/?p=404


For every dollar you spend at the pump this is where it goes:
-56% pays for the crude oil
-26% pays for the refining and distribution of the fuel
-18% goes to taxes!!!

18% sounds like a windfall profit to me!e oil companies

[Turbineguy]

9. Are there any homeowners here

who would describe their price appreciation as 'obscene' if it was over 9% per year?

If your 401K earned more than 9% would you be ashamed and give it back?

Just asking.:hide:

[Hydra]

10. Would you object to them manipulating the market to make those numbers happen?

Because 10.89 Billion didn't come from nowhere.

[Beausoleil]

11. Don't know about your 401k but

there aren't 300 million people hooked on my 401K. Also my 401k isn't driving the economy into a brick wall, nor is it preventing research into alternative fuels, denying global climate change, getting whopping tax breaks, colluding with other 401ks nor is it lying to Congress. Nor it is making 9%.

[NewJeffCT]

12. The oil companies don't have HUGE profit margins

They have good profit margins - but, they just sell so much gas that their total profits are just staggering. Their profit margins have gone up in recent years, but not dramatically - like from 8%/9% to 10%/11%.

10% of $400 billion in sales is $40 billion in profits. Wal-Mart had similar revenues compared to Exxon, but only 1/3 of the profit, though.

the companies that have had really huge profit margins in recent years have been the pharmaceutical companies - in 2007, Johnson & Johnson had over $10 billion in profit on about $60 billion in revenue, and Pfizer made $8 billion on $48 billion in revenues. So, both had profit margins that are about 16-17%. In 2006, J&J had $11 billion in profit on $53 billion in sales - over 20%; while Pfizer had over $19 billion in profit on $52 billion in sales, a staggering 36.5% rate.

[minavasht]

13. So even if they sell at cost

it will be $3.17 instead of $3.53.
That DIY car looks much better now.

[NewJeffCT]

14. well

if we decide to let our roads to go shit by eliminating, or lowering, federal & state taxes on gas, we can get the price lower.