Existing refineries have been increased in size. I believe we have >90% of the capacity we had in 1981 as well. Nobody is saying Exxon has to build refineries if they don't want to. There are other oil companies and there are always others who could build and supply their own gas if needed. Now, if the oil companies are blocking it, that's a different matter.

Listen, I'm not saying Oil companies are not doing things to ensure they have good profits. I'm simply saying a 10% profit on sales is nothing new in the corporate world. Hell, it was only recently that the price of gas caught up with the '80's prices based on inflation.

From what I understand, they do maintenance now due to the formulation changes they make. When they're changing formulas, they're already below capacity levels. But I do see your point, well played sir. But still, profit margin is still on par with other businesses. Yeah they're making insane amounts of money, but they're also buying and selling at insane amounts of money.

And the government is subsidizing them in the process. Win/win for them.

Subsidies suck. I've never really looked into them and probably don't want to.

More on issues created by migrating to ethanol-based gas:

http://www.washingtontimes.com...ntary

Does anyone know if the oil companies have a hand in the e85 direction?

OK, I thought I would do a calculation to see what is happening with gas. The below is based upon this mornings prices...

Each barrel of oil can be refined to the following:21 gallons of gas6 gallons of heating fuel5 gallons of jet fuel

Now, let's note current cost per gallon (using today's price in california):gas = 3.652/gal for regularJet Fuel = 4.90/galHeating oil = 3.01/gal

Let's break down the current tax per gallon prices:Gas:- 6% sales = .198-.18/gal cali tax- 1.25% county = .04- 1.2 state UST fee- 18.4 federal----TOTAL Tax per gallon: .722

Jet Fuel: .219/gal

Now, let's determine the overall sale price of the above gas:- heating: 3.01/gal x 6 = 18.06- jet: 4.90/gal x 5 = 24.5- gas: 3.652 x 21 = 76.692--- TOTAL pre-tax per barrel based on sale price: 119.252

Now, total taxes per barrel: - gas: 15.162- Jet: 1.095--- Total tax per barrel based on sales: 16.257

Subtract tax from sale per barrel: 102.995

Current price per barrel: 100.98

Total left over: 2.015

So, based on the above, the Gov't gets $16.27 in taxes per barrel of oil. The $2.015 left over is further broken down via the store selling the gas, multiple transports, refining, labor, expenses, etc. End result is a small amount of actual profit via the oil companies themselves?

Is the above correct or am I missing something?

To go with the above, I also ran across the following:

"According to Tax Foundation data, U.S. oil companies cleared $630 billion after taxes while paying $518 billion in federal and state corporate taxes at an average rate of 45%. Over the same period, an additional $1.34 trillion in gas taxes was paid by consumers to state and local governments and the feds."

Why has there not been any responses to my last two posts? There was a lot of finger pointing and I spent the time to break down what a barrel of oil means, yet no comments?

The truth is no fun.

Exactly.

I support record profits. My mutuals are riding high.

Whenever someone starts grousing and whining about what someone else puts in their pocket, 99% of the time it's for one of the following reasons:

1) They're too lazy to do the same thing.

2) They're too stupid to do the same thing.

audtatious wrote:To go with the above, I also ran across the following:

"According to Tax Foundation data, U.S. oil companies cleared $630 billion after taxes while paying $518 billion in federal and state corporate taxes at an average rate of 45%. Over the same period, an additional $1.34 trillion in gas taxes was paid by consumers to state and local governments and the feds."

Which is my second point. What interest does the state/feds have in lower prices since they receive a percentage of the price. The state even taxes the tax the feds put on a gallon of gas. A tax on a tax is suppose to be illegal. Go figure.

I agree, but all you hear are about the major profits of the oil companies when I have shown that price per barrel is not actually that great and highly pales in comparison to what the Gov't is making off the same.

And to think that some Dems have tried pressing forth an additional .50 tax on a gallon of gas.....

Hmmmm.....Who's fleecing whom? Realize the below taxes have nothing to do with the taxes "at the pump"

ExxonMobil 2007Revenue $404.6 BillionProfit $40.6 Billion (10.0%)Taxes $102.5 Billion (25.3%)

Sales-Based taxes $31.728BOther taxes and duties $40.953BIncome taxes $29.864B

2007 Financial & Operating Reviewhttp://www.exxonmobil.com/corp...7.pdfPage 16

- - - - - - - - -

ConocoPhillips 2007Revenue $194.5 BillionProfit $11.9 Billion (6.1%)Taxes $30.4 Billion (15.6%)

Taxes other than income taxes $18.990BIncome taxes $11.891B

2007 Annual Reporthttp://www.conocophillips.com/...l.pdfPage 60

- - - - - - - - -

Chevron 2007Revenue $220.9 BillionProfit $18.7 Billion (8.5%)Taxes $35.7 Billion (16.2%)

Taxes other than income taxes $22.266BIncome taxes $13.479B

2007 Annual Report Supplementhttp://media.corporate-ir.net/...7.pdfPage 3

- - - - - - - - -

Marathon 2007

Revenue $62.8 BillionProfit $4.0 Billion (6.3%)Taxes $8.5 Billion (13.5%)

Consumer excise taxes $5.163BOther taxes $0.394BIncome taxes $2.901B

2007 Annual Reporthttp://www.marathon.com/conten...k.pdfPage F-4