Record oil profits

[Coastal]

It would seem like there are several other factors that contribute to the high gas prices that we all have to pay. Some of these reasons have absolutely nothing to do with the oil companies themselves.

Value of the US dollar
Speculators
Government restriction of domestic oil production

Two of the aboves could be fixed tomorrow by opening up more drilling and placing stricter regulations on speculators. The value of the dollar can only be fixed through sound fiscal policy over the long term regardless of what party holds power.

 

[grampi]

Originally Posted By: Tornado Red
Originally Posted By: grampi
I think speculation has every bit as much, if not more to do with pricing than does the value of the dollar...I believe if no speculation at all was involved with the pricing of oil, price would go down...


Consider the word "anticipation" instead of "speculation".

What do you anticipate will happen in the future?


What will happen in the future doesn't have to effect today's prices.

 

[Tornado Red]

Originally Posted By: grampi

What will happen in the future doesn't have to effect today's prices.


If it affects your behavior, then it affects the demand curve and it affects the price.

As of today, the dollar index has declined for something like 14 trading days in a row. Unless something happens to change expectations, the dollar will continue to weaken, and almost every commodity priced in dollars will climb higher.

 

[Trvlr500]

I'm no fan of George Soros because I know what he is and who he works for. That said he made a public statement recently saying that the Federal Reserve Note is no longer the world's reserve currency and that oil, gold and silver are now the new currencies.

Soros is as evil as they come but he knows what he is talking about. His specialty is collapsing currencies and rigging bond markets among other things I'm sure. That's how he became a billionaire. When the British pound collapsed years ago he cashed in. He's doing the same thing with the dollar right now.

It is no wonder he is invested so heavily in gold and oil.

 

[odie]

Still see people leaving their mini-vans and other vehicles running while sitting in parking lots with A/C on while it's ony 70 degrees . Turn off the engine and put the POWER windows down ! Enjoy the FRESH air and the soothing breeze

. Thanks for contributing to higher prices and record profits . Then these are the ones that complain about high cost of fill ups .

 

[Trvlr500]

Actually, they are probably NOT complaining about the price of fill ups. Obviously they can afford it. They are probably invested in oil.

I DO understand what you mean about conserving though.

 

[daves87rs]

Originally Posted By: Trvlr500
Actually, they are probably NOT complaining about the price of fill ups. Obviously they can afford it. They are probably invested in oil.

I DO understand what you mean about conserving though.




+1

 

[mechanicx]

Originally Posted By: Trvlr500
Actually, they are probably NOT complaining about the price of fill ups. Obviously they can afford it. They are probably invested in oil.

I DO understand what you mean about conserving though.



Yeah they probably have plenty of money invested in mutual funds invested in oil commodities and want gas to go higher and everypne to pay more to increase their investment funds. Either that or they have money and just don't care about conservation. Either one is really the same concept of not considering their behaviors effect on others.

 

[Trvlr500]

Originally Posted By: mechanicx
Originally Posted By: Trvlr500
Actually, they are probably NOT complaining about the price of fill ups. Obviously they can afford it. They are probably invested in oil.

I DO understand what you mean about conserving though.



Yeah they probably have plenty of money invested in mutual funds invested in oil commodities and want gas to go higher and everypne to pay more to increase their investment funds. Either that or they have money and just don't care about conservation. Either one is really the same concept of not considering their behaviors effect on others.


I have a friend of mine who has been invested in oil for years. They do very well on it. I have another friend of mine who has a buddy of his who buy's oil futures and does very well. Al Gore grew up rich because of oil stocks and investments in Occidental Petroleum and Zinc mining just to name two.

Instead of whining about it maybe those that hate oil prices should INVEST in it and capitalize on the situation so many others are taking advantage of.

Oil, natural gas, gold and silver are where it's at these days. So are many other commidities. For the record, I'm NOT invested in oil or natural gas but if I had a bunch of money I didn't need that is where I would be along with gold and silver.

What we are seeing here in the rising price of ALL commodities is a collapsing of the Federal Reserve Note. It's that simple.

Just my .02 cents.

 

[LTVibe]

Originally Posted By: Jimmy9190
I read this today, almost $11 Billion in profits for Exxon in the first quarter of 2011:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Exxon-earns-nearly-11B-in-1Q-apf-479576777.html?x=0

In the same article it is reported Shell made a 1Q 2011 profit of $8.78 Billion.

Shell's profit will help make up for the five years and $4 Billion they lost thanks to the EPA:

Drill, Maybe, Drill

Quote:
Shell Oil, after investing five years and $4 billion, had to abandon attempts to drill off Alaska after Obama's Environmental Protection Agency withheld the necessary air permits.

 

[Spyder7]

From the same article:

Quote:

Exxon made almost $11 billion and practically apologized for it.

Sensing public outrage over gasoline prices that have topped $4 in some states, the company struck a defensive posture Thursday after posting some of its best quarterly financial results ever.

Exxon said it had no control over high oil prices. It said it's one of the biggest taxpayers in the United States. It cast federal subsidies as "legitimate tax provisions" that keep jobs at home, and cast itself as a victim of Washington scapegoating.


Love the way they word that. Poor Exxon. Record profits boosted by tax payer subsidies and we're supposed to shed tears for you instead of questioning the validity of the subsidies, or asking what kind of back handed "practical apology" this really is given the thinly veiled threat to cut jobs if the subsidies are cut while they make record profits.

Yeah I'm really feeling their pain.

-Spyder

 

[Shannow]

But I was lead to believe that only "alternative" energies got handouts, and should be made to stand on their own merits.

At least Exxon failed to mention the great big elephant in the room, so that it wasn't highlighted the "other" costs.

 

[Tornado Red]

Originally Posted By: Spyder7
From the same article:

Quote:
Exxon said it had no control over high oil prices. It said it's one of the biggest taxpayers in the United States. It cast federal subsidies as "legitimate tax provisions" that keep jobs at home, and cast itself as a victim of Washington scapegoating.


Love the way they word that. Poor Exxon. Record profits boosted by tax payer subsidies and we're supposed to shed tears for you instead of questioning the validity of the subsidies...


Let me list some of the "subsidies" and then you tell me whether they are valid or not:
1) US companies that operate in foreign countries have traditionally been allowed to deduct from their gross income all taxes and royalties that are paid to those foreign countries. The proposed (defeated) legislation would have ended this deduction, but only for five large vertically-integrated oil companies. All other companies would continue to be treated as they always have. The Democrats would force these companies to pay taxes on taxes.

2) US companies engaged in oil exploration have always been allowed to deduct 100% of their expenses in the year those expenses are incurred. Or, instead of saying "always", let me clarify and say "since 1913". The purpose is to encourage greater oil production, because many of the "wildcatters" don't have the resources to keep exploring if they have to wait years to recoup their expenses.

When big oil companies spend up to $1 billion to drill in the deep Outer Continental Shelf, they cannot afford to wait many years in order to write off their expenses. If they are forced to wait, then in the next year and the year after that they have fewer capital resources to keep exploring and keep drilling and keep developing more oil wells.

3) All US manufacturing firms get a tax benefit that lowers their corporate tax rate compared to non-manufacturing companies. This particular benefit is fairly new, since 2003 or so. I believe other manufacturers are taxed at a rate 9 percentage points lower, and oil companies 6 percentage points lower. The proposed (defeated) legislation would have raised the tax rate for the five major integrated oil companies, but not all other oil companies, nor all other manufacturing companies.

The proposed (defeated) legislation was a punishment for five companies, a punishment because in the 1st quarter they were very profitable. It would have reduced future oil production, making the US even more dependent on foreign oil.

And, because it was a revenue bill and all revenue bills must originate in the House of Representatives -- see the US Constitution -- the proposed law was itself illegal.

The Congress needs to cut spending by $1 trillion annually. The Democrats don't want to talk about spending cuts, so they waste a few days by arguing in favor a $4 billion annual tax increase... an illegal tax increase.

 

[LTVibe]

ExxonMobil's Earnings, Profits and Taxes

ExxonMobil earnings on operations in the United States: $2.6 billion.

ExxonMobil taxes paid to the U.S. Government: $3.1 billion.

 

[LS2JSTS]

"Record Oil Company Profits"....?????

That headline could/should just as accurately be written as "Feds collect record fuel tax revenues"

As always the government makes more profit from your gas purchase than the companies that have to Find, Drill, Produce, Transport, Refine and Distribute the product...and we have contempt for the Company that does all the work?

I say, More power to them...Bravo for them and their record profits!

 

[Spyder7]

Originally Posted By: LS2JSTS
"Record Oil Company Profits"....?????

That headline could/should just as accurately be written as "Feds collect record fuel tax revenues"

As always the government makes more profit from your gas purchase than the companies that have to Find, Drill, Produce, Transport, Refine and Distribute the product...and we have contempt for the Company that does all the work?

I say, More power to them...Bravo for them and their record profits!


I have nothing but contempt for any corporation who, while enjoying record profits, makes thinly veiled threats if its tax payer subsidies are reduced - and its the tax payers who are feeling the pain at the pumps, not Exxon.

So what if they're taxed? They should be. If I took last year's receipts and calculated all of the taxes I paid, from income tax, to hidden fuel and other "luxury" taxes, to sales tax, it would add up to a much greater percentage than what Exxon paid in.

So no, I'm not applauding them. I'm instead trimming every single km I can from my driving and eliminating all unnecessary trips (this I began when fuel prices started their march up, so its an extension of an existing practice at a time when I would usually be enjoying lower fuel prices and doing more driving).

This practice not only refuses to reward or applaud them, its also aimed in equal measure at our government here that is "expressing its concern" over the high fuel profits while enjoying too the record proceeds from their taxes on it rather than "express their concern" in a more meaningful way, such as reducing the tax on fuel.

-Spyder

 

[HTSS_TR]

Record revenues = record profits, what wrong with that ? Oil industry on average has a profit margin of around 10% of revenue, which is lower than many industries. All industries has some tax subsidies, oil industry did not have any specific tax subsidy for itself.

I'm glad they make good profit so that they can spend some of it to search for new oil.

 

[Trvlr500]

This is funny. They just gave another $7 billion dollars to the "green weenies" for technology that is laughable at best whilst starving people in thrid world countries and there are those complaining that the oil companies get tax write offs just like McDonald's or any other corporation does.

Every Volt that is sold is funded by the taxpayer to the tune of about 50% the price. Then there are the poisoned mercury bulbs they want to force us to install in our houses and the promoters of all this criminal activity can only complain about the oil companies.

 

[Spyder7]

Originally Posted By: Trvlr500

Every Volt that is sold is funded by the taxpayer to the tune of about 50% the price. Then there are the poisoned mercury bulbs they want to force us to install in our houses and the promoters of all this criminal activity can only complain about the oil companies.


That's probably because that's what the topic is about. If you care start one about poisoned mercury bulbs in the appropriate sub-forum, have at it - nobody's stopping you from doing so.

-Spyder

 

[Trvlr500]

Originally Posted By: Spyder7
Originally Posted By: Trvlr500

Every Volt that is sold is funded by the taxpayer to the tune of about 50% the price. Then there are the poisoned mercury bulbs they want to force us to install in our houses and the promoters of all this criminal activity can only complain about the oil companies.


That's probably because that's what the topic is about. If you care start one about poisoned mercury bulbs in the appropriate sub-forum, have at it - nobody's stopping you from doing so.

-Spyder


It's all connected, Spyder. The oil companies are only part of the big picture. We can't have a modern day economy without oil. It's that simple. Nor can we have a modern day economy without nuclear power, coal fired power plants and the internal combustion engine.

Our energy resources here in the states are being cut off for a reason. I hope you enjoy the result 20 years from now because it WILL affect everyone including you.