I just read this in a yahoo news article. "Among the cheapest countries for gasoline, Venezuelan service stations sell at roughly 12 cents a gallon." I can only dream of ever paying so little for gas. It sucks with the hemi. I just paid $3.25 for 89 octane 2 days ago here in Palmdale, CA.

And for the bio-diesel, it produces the same mpg and horsepower as regular diesel. I caught a show doing research on it. It only cost the guy around .20 a gallon after making it himself with some fancy *** machine. Pretty neat stuff though.

 

The average profit margin for the oil industry is about 8.5%. That makes them in line with American business in general. Yes, Exxon had a good year in 2005. Their margin was a little over 10%. Last year, Yahoo's profit margin was around 40%. Don't hear much complaining about them, however. The oil business, especially at the major oil company level, just deal with big dollar amounts You guys got to remember, the oil business is NOT the retailing of gasoline. By far the greatest portion of Exxon's or Shell's profits, for example, come from the exploring, producing and selling of crude oil - not selling gasoline. There are hundreds of oil companies just in the US. Do you see hundreds of brands of gasoline stations?

We are all (that includes me) used to having relatively cheap energy in the US. Such may not be the case in the future. Just like you can't buy a new VW Beetle for $1800 like you could in the mid-60's.

SpringRam

 

I don't remember paying Yahoo last time i did a search. Profit margin vs actual profit dollars means nothing
when profit records are being broken everyday.
And I'm not complaining about the price of fuel, I wouldn't own a 15mpg tank if it bothered me that much,
but save the BS terrorist scare shortages for increased prices, and that goes all the way down the oil
cartel chain.

 

Dear Student Driver,

You are obviously too smart for the rest of us. The world of business is far below your horizons. Not paying Yahoo the last time you did a search? - somebody paid for it. You think Yahoo is not a business? Just ask all of the advertisers on the web page. Since you seem to be one of the world's experts on oil supply, please tell more us more about the "oil cartel chain". As far as the "BS terrorist scare", your point is what? Like I said, you just way too to smart for the rest of us. You need to elaborate a little more on the subject matter of profit. Do you even know what profit margin is? So having a better and more profitable year is a bad and evil thing for a company? I sure do not want to be a shareholder in your company.

SpringRam

 

Too smart for who? If I read correctly, this wasn't a thread about how greatful we all are to be
paying $3+ a gallon. I claim to be smarter than no one, but obviously you have no problem with gas prices,
so why bother replying? Do you have a vested interest in the oil biz? If so, I'm wasting my
time replying as well. As far as advertisers paying for advertisement, thats their business,
try the yellow pages, but when the world is run by petroleum, and that market controls every
other aspect of the business world, profit margins mean zero to me. The bottom line is that the oil
industry isn't hurting by any stretch, what 8-10 billiion a quarter(just one company), and the fact that one facet
of the "market" controls all othersisn't exactly a healthy business environment, unless you're in the oil business.
I don't see oil consumption dropping off next quarter or next year and so on, so I'll bet another record
breaking quarter is due.
I apologize for my sophomoric business knowledge, but if profit margin is so much more important
than profit itself, why isn't there an exxon-mobile.com search engine? The profitability is right there, sell
out of the oil business and take that 40% profit margin to the bank. Well, I guess 10 billion vs. 160 million
in first quarter profit does sound a little better.

 

You keep talking about $8-10 billion dollars which indicates you keep missing the point. If McDonald's sold enough hambugers in a quarter to have an $8 billion dollar quarter - would they be making too much profit? No, because the amount of profit they make on the first hamburger sold is the same amount they made on the zillionth hamburger sold.

I do not like higher energy prices anymore than you do. Thus, I am complaining too. That's why I opened this thread. I get the feeling you think that there are a bunch of old bald-headed fat guys in a dark room somewhere manipulating world oil prices just so that gasoline prices in America will go up. Not even OPEC can do much about the worldwide price of crude anymore. Do you remember when oil prices were $10/barrel in the late '90's? My point here is this: If the Exxon board room can manipulate the price of crude oil, then why would they have driven it down to $10? They didn't nor could they even if they wanted to - world market conditions lowered it. Just like the increased world demand for crude (think India, China, for example) is driving up the price of crude. Not to mention continued disruption of oil production in offshore Nigeria and jitters about Iran. Also, here we are in the US not allowing oil exploration in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, other parts of offshore Flordia, offshore California, and parts of Alaska yet we want to have as cheap energy prices as we can get. Doesn't make sense to me.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy your Ram as much as I do. I just wish it didn't cost so much to fill up the tank.

SpringRam

 

let me put my 2 cents worth of gas on this fire............ did not even make a flash LOL

 

The main issue with this is that the prices have gone up while wages have stayed the same. I am spending twice as much this year for gas as last year and making the same amount of money. If inflation were the answer as to why gas prices have gone up then wages along with everything else would have gone up 40-50% as well. The time and time again excuse of "look what other countries are paying" is bull****. Wake up and think about what WE were paying last year and no one gave two ****s about what other countries were paying, nor should they still. Its an excuse used to PSYOP all of us into thinking that 3.50 per gallon is a "good deal" over the next 12 months. Supply and demand has not gone up in this county either, no one demands more gas, we dont go out and fill our tanks and burn off gas untill its empty and then do it again and again. The demand is the same, if anything we try and limit how much we drive due to the price of gas.

My .02 cents

 

Living in Anchorage, Alaska. Where pretty much our oil/gas is being shipped to all you guys down there in the Lower 48's. I'm pulling about 89 octane @ $2.85 a gall and it's a biznatch. Seriously this is just making me struggle with money and makes me want to drive my truck a bunch slower than normal and I can't play as hard...

 

I agree with killer here. SpringRam, you sound like a big time republican. I hope I'm wrong. Anyway, there is no doubt that there's more involvement in this oil "problem" than just the oil companies. I mean someone is making tons of money. I got an idea, lets create a problem, like there is an oil shortage or that terrorism may strike an oil field or that we may go to war with Iran. What is the solution, we can tap our "oil reserves" (which are in or around national wildlife reserves, but who cares about animals), so by creating new drill stations (someone has to create them, lets not bid and give it to Halliburton), we can pump more crude oil (who owns shares of oil companies), we can provide the American public with $2.50 per gallon regular gas. (Cause you know, it will never go down to $.99 or $1.50). By the way, we will give you a $100.00 rebate/credit if you let us. (Whoopee, $100, wow, I can believe they can be so generous to give us $100.)
Like Killer said, we are not using more gas, we are probably consuming less. More people switched their SUVs and trucks for 6 or 4 cylinders after the first hikes. I know business is business, but come on, there is also a thing called moral obligation. These businesses seem to forget that. By the way that also includes McDonalds, a clown with no morals.