Record oil profits

[LTVibe]

As other posters have mentioned, there is another reason prices are going up, and it can't be blamed on speculators or the oil industry:

$6 Gas? Could Happen if Dollar Keeps Getting Weaker

 

[Tempest]

But printing money to prop up "aggregate demand" is good right?

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: LTVibe
As other posters have mentioned, there is another reason prices are going up, and it can't be blamed on speculators or the oil industry:

$6 Gas? Could Happen if Dollar Keeps Getting Weaker




Speculators aren't helping matters.

 

[grampi]

Originally Posted By: LTVibe
Originally Posted By: grampi
No, but supply is purposely kept tight to keep prices as high as possible...

If that is true, then why are all the media outlets and politicians ignoring it? Many of these guys would love to blame 'Big Oil' for the run-up in gas prices, but haven't done so.

The supplies are no tighter now than they were before the upheaval in the Mideast, when prices were well below $3/gallon.




Most media outlets are ignoring it because most of them are in the tank for Obama and they don't want their masiah getting blamed for the high prices. Polititions don't want to do anything about it because lots of tax dollars come from gas, which means more revenue they can blow on all their personal [censored] money wasting programs. You're right about supplies not being any tighter now than they have been, which is why the price increases we've seen over the last 6-8 months are nothing but completely unnecessary price gouging...

 

[HTSS_TR]

This article was written in 2008 and it was similar situation as today posted on Boston.com

"No profits, no oil"
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/06/04/no_profits_no_oil/

"Oil is a boom-and-bust business. Sometimes profits soar. Sometimes there are no profits. Today a barrel of light sweet crude fetches more than $125, but it wasn't that long ago that the price fell below $20 - with, for many, excruciating results.

"I worked for a large oil company in the early '80s," a reader wrote to me the last time Congress and the media were in a swivet over oil-company earnings. "I lost my job, along with 150,000 other engineers and geologists, when the price of oil dropped from $36/barrel to $10/barrel in six months."

The hope of reaping big profits is the incentive that impels Exxon, Chevron, and other oil companies to take enormous risks and spend immense sums - a single offshore drilling platform can cost as much as $1 billion - to discover, extract, and refine new supplies of petroleum. Profits earned in the boom years make it possible for the industry to persevere through the bad years. Diminish those profits and you diminish that perseverance - oil companies won't invest as much, won't explore as much, and won't produce as much.

If you want to see a real windfall, take a look at what Big Oil pays in taxes. The 27 largest US energy companies forked over $48 billion in income taxes in 2004, $67 billion in 2005, and more than $90 billion in 2006 - an 87 percent increase. Since 1981, the Tax Foundation calculates, the oil industry has earned a cumulative $1.12 trillion in profits - but it paid a cumulative $1.65 trillion in taxes (add another half-trillion to account for taxes paid to foreign governments).

For most of the 25 years between 1981 and 2006, says foundation president Scott Hodge, taxes collected from oil companies by federal, state, and local governments were nearly double the industry's profits in any given year. For all the clucking over ExxonMobil's $10.9 billion in profits last quarter, little attention was paid to its total tax bill in the same period: more than $29 billion. "

 

[LTVibe]

Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
If you want to see a real windfall, take a look at what Big Oil pays in taxes.

Deja Vu

The media conveniently ignores the oil industry's 'windfall taxes'. Balanced reporting is not part of their agenda.

 

[Tornado Red]

Originally Posted By: Jimmy9190
Here's the first published news that I have seen about profits from the oil industry, this one is about one of my very least favorites, Halliburton:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Halliburton-1Q-profit-up-on-apf-2640376789.html?x=0

"The Houston company reported first-quarter earnings of $511 million, or 56 cents per share, compared with $206 million, or 23 cents per share, in the same period last year. Revenue rose 40 percent to $5.28 billion."


Halliburton is NOT an oil company. Its main businesses are manufacturing, construction, and oil services.

When oil companies are drilling new wells, Halliburton does well... and so it should.

Also, while Halliburton is still incorporated in the US, its headquarters are in Dubai, not in Houston.

I do not know why Halliburton is hated. They must be doing a lot of things right, to be making so much money.

 

[Trvlr500]

Oil company profits are no different now than they were. The fact of the matter is that since we have been cut off from our own resources thanks to the environmentalist movement they have to blame someone for the fact that our government has forced us to be dependent on foriegn oil when we have plenty of our own.

That's why the prices are rising along with the collapsing of our currency which is nothing more than un-constitutional counterfeit trash controlled by those who print it up.

If we were allowed to use our own natural resources the way other countries can what happens in the the Middle East or anywhere else wouldn't affect our oil supplies and therefore our prices.

But of course, we'd STILL have the falling dollar.

 

[Trvlr500]

Originally Posted By: Tornado Red
Originally Posted By: Jimmy9190
Here's the first published news that I have seen about profits from the oil industry, this one is about one of my very least favorites, Halliburton:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Halliburton-1Q-profit-up-on-apf-2640376789.html?x=0

"The Houston company reported first-quarter earnings of $511 million, or 56 cents per share, compared with $206 million, or 23 cents per share, in the same period last year. Revenue rose 40 percent to $5.28 billion."


Halliburton is NOT an oil company. Its main businesses are manufacturing, construction, and oil services.

When oil companies are drilling new wells, Halliburton does well... and so it should.

Also, while Halliburton is still incorporated in the US, its headquarters are in Dubai, not in Houston.

I do not know why Halliburton is hated. They must be doing a lot of things right, to be making so much money.


Oh, I can tell you why they are hated. I can also tell you why they make so much money. They are one of the companies our government works for regardless of who is in office.

In addition to that Halliburton/KBR is one of few companies that can go anywhere on the planet and build something regardless of the terrain, climate or anything else.

Just like GE and so many others they get what they want one way or another.

 

[Tornado Red]

Originally Posted By: Trvlr500

Oh, I can tell you why they are hated. I can also tell you why they make so much money. They are one of the companies our government works for regardless of who is in office.

In addition to that Halliburton/KBR is one of few companies that can go anywhere on the planet and build something regardless of the terrain, climate or anything else.


I know that when the Clinton Administration went to war against Serbia, the KBR division of Halliburton was given a contract to build barracks and mess halls and airfields. Without competitive bidding, as I recall. No complaints from the Democrats and other lefties at the time. (Incidentally, KBR is now an independent company, no longer part of Halliburton.)

It was only after **** Cheney (Halliburton CEO 1995-2000) was nominated as vice-president that the Left began to wage a massive PR campaign against Halliburton.

 

[Trvlr500]

Originally Posted By: grampi
Originally Posted By: LTVibe
Originally Posted By: grampi
No, but supply is purposely kept tight to keep prices as high as possible...

If that is true, then why are all the media outlets and politicians ignoring it? Many of these guys would love to blame 'Big Oil' for the run-up in gas prices, but haven't done so.

The supplies are no tighter now than they were before the upheaval in the Mideast, when prices were well below $3/gallon.




Most media outlets are ignoring it because most of them are in the tank for Obama and they don't want their masiah getting blamed for the high prices. Polititions don't want to do anything about it because lots of tax dollars come from gas, which means more revenue they can blow on all their personal [censored] money wasting programs. You're right about supplies not being any tighter now than they have been, which is why the price increases we've seen over the last 6-8 months are nothing but completely unnecessary price gouging...


It really isn't price gouging, Vibe. What else has been going on for the last 2 years? Does "Quantitive Easing" ring a bell. They have printed and spent trillions over the last two years bailing out Wall Street. The price of EVERYTHING is climbing. They have collapsed the dollar which will bring even higher prices on everything.

What they are doing around the world is playing "Hot Potato" with all the debt which is the ONLY reason we aren't in a "Grapes of Wrath" depression right now. It's on the way though. This administration is putting the finishing touches on what all the previous administrations started. They just need a few more nails in the coffin to collapse the U.S.

They will be able to play their game for a while longer but eventually all that debt is going to land right here on the U.S. Countries around the world don't want to buy our debt any longer and many don't want the worthless Federal Reserve Note either. Neither do I for that matter.

People pay attention to gas because the media tells them to. It's nothing more than a political football to distract from the REAL underlying problem which is the Federal Reserve and Wall Street. Who, incidentally got the first $5 trillion in bailout money 2 years ago and gave it to banks around the world even though WE are on the hook for it. That's only $5 trillion of the $20 trillion we have been saddled with over the last 2 years so they can keep the charade going.

The falling dollar is causing rising prices. Nothing else.

 

[grampi]

Trvlr500

You can't say the falling dollar is the only thing causing rising prices. Speculators are driving up prices too.

 

[Tornado Red]

Originally Posted By: grampi
Trvlr500

You can't say the falling dollar is the only thing causing rising prices. Speculators are driving up prices too.

Actually, the prices for the spot month, the closest futures contract which currently is June for crude oil and May for gasoline and heating oil. reflects the current supply and demand.

Prices for the more-distant months are either higher or lower than the spot month, depending on whether traders expect higher or lower prices for the physical product in the future.

If traders are pushing prices higher than consumers were willing to pay, it takes less than one second to transmit a sell order. Prices in the futures markets CANNOT diverge from the cash market for more than 1-2 seconds. The oil market is so huge and so fragmented that there is no possibility that any individual or any group of conspirators can rig the market.

If you assumed a conspiratorial circle greater than has ever existed, and assumed that the participants would risk 100% of everything they have, then they would have enough money to drive the markets for one or possibly two hours.

And then they would run out of money, and traders would take advantage of the unsustainable prices to sell, and the conspirators would lose every penny and still owe even more.

 

[Trvlr500]

Originally Posted By: grampi
Trvlr500

You can't say the falling dollar is the only thing causing rising prices. Speculators are driving up prices too.


There are quite a few reasons that gas prices rise and fall but look at prices of everything over the past 100 years. It's been steady inflation for almost 100 years and it REALLY kicked in back in the 70's when we were completely taken off the gold standard.

Look at the price of corn because idiots decided to start the ethanol scam by burning the food supply. Demand for corn went up and so did the price. It even has to be subsidized because it is a stupid idea which not only doesn't help the environment and lowers fuel mileage but is starving millions around the world because corn is what they base their food supply on. There were all kinds of people who invested in ethanol and still do because their profits are guaranteed by the government subsidizing it and forcing us to use it. Did speculators drive up the price of corn?

The roller coaster ride the markets always have are caused by supply, demand, invstors and many other factors but the steady rise in inflation is only due to one thing. The falling dollar. There has been more worthless money printed up in the last 3 years than in the previous 100 years. Personally, I think the markets are manipulated by the big banks (I KNOW the gold and silver markets are) but even if you don't want to believe that you can't ignore the printing of money out of thin air.

The shell game they are playing with the debt around the world is the only reason we aren't paying $15 a gallon and gold isn't at $10,000 an ounce or higher. This shell game WILL come to an end eventually and I doubt anyone will be blaming the cost of a loaf of bread on the speculators.

The "speculators" are the scape goat. I firmly believe the oil supplies are controlled and when someone can do that they can control the price as well as our economy. Speculators haven't driven the price of gas from 30 cents a gallon in the 70's to over $4 just as speculators didn't drive the price of the average house from $50,000 in the 70's to where they were a few years ago. Fanny and Freddie did. The housing market hasn't even begun to collapse due to the government backing the loans through Fannie and Freddie with our paychecks so Wall Street won't lose a dime. Speculators also haven't forced us to buy our oil from other countries while blocking us from using our own. Our own government has done that while lying to us about how they want us to be "energy independent".

Specualtors have nothing to do with all the different "boutique" fuels that they make to satisfy environmental zealots like those out in California or the winter/summer blends they have to change over to when the season's change. They only need two. One winter and one summer. It costs money to shut down and transfer to another fuel.

The supply in this country is controlled by environmentalist groups and regulation. Where all their funding comes from is anyone's guess but I firmly believe it comes from outside this country. They are also very good at driving up the cost of getting and refining the oil with a mountain of red-tape, and regulations on top of regulations.

There is no shortage of oil in the U.S.

 

[Trvlr500]

I think we will see a barrel of oil hit $150 to $175 a gallon and gas will hit around $6. It will stay there as well. I think we will eventually see $200+ a barrel and none of it will be caused by "the speculators" or "record profits" since right now the profits are the same they were 5 years ago.

There is just more being sold worldwide due to demand. The government makes 5X the profit on a gallon of gas that the oil companies do. Then the states add more taxes. The government and the states are the ones making record profits because they don't even have to do anything. They just steal the money.

The only way to force ethanol on us is to drive the price of fuel up to where ethanol is finally viable. Cost wise. Then more people will starve around the world and the U.S. economy will collapse.

When diesel gets to $7 a gallon the trucks will stop and then the real fireworks will start. I hope it's worth the false belief of "saving the planet" to not have food on the shelves.

 

[Tornado Red]

Originally Posted By: Trvlr500
The "speculators" are the scape goat. I firmly believe the oil supplies are controlled and when someone can do that they can control the price as well as our economy. Speculators haven't driven the price of gas from 30 cents a gallon in the 70's to over $4... Speculators also haven't forced us to buy our oil from other countries while blocking us from using our own. Our own government has done that while lying to us about how they want us to be "energy independent".

Specualtors have nothing to do with all the different "boutique" fuels that they make to satisfy environmental zealots like those out in California or the winter/summer blends they have to change over to when the season's change. They only need two. One winter and one summer. It costs money to shut down and transfer to another fuel.

The supply in this country is controlled by environmentalist groups and regulation. Where all their funding comes from is anyone's guess but I firmly believe it comes from outside this country. They are also very good at driving up the cost of getting and refining the oil with a mountain of red-tape, and regulations on top of regulations.

There is no shortage of oil in the U.S.


I agree totally.

In the past couple decades, we've had increased bureaucratic interference with the development of new oil sources. But it only in the last two years that the bureaucrats have been almost desperate in their efforts to shut down the production and consumption of both oil and coal. Since our transportation network depends on oil and our energy sector depends on coal, it almost seems as though we now have a government that is determined to destroy the economy -- but at the same time desperate to cast the blame elsewhere.

I just do not see how the mainstream media can continue this coverup until after the next election.

 

[demarpaint]

Like I've said before let the oil futures traders hold the contracts they buy for even a week, to stop the day trading, or pay a penalty for an early sell. Lets see where oil prices head then. Speculators aren't totally to blame for higher oil prices just a part of it. The penalty will tell just how much of a part of the higher prices they are responsible for. The problem is Wall Street won't ever let that happen so we'll never know.

 

[grampi]

Trvlr500

Saying oil company profits are the same today as they were 5 years ago is ridiculous.

 

[Tornado Red]

Originally Posted By: demarpaint
Like I've said before let the oil futures traders hold the contracts they buy for even a week, to stop the day trading, or pay a penalty for an early sell. Lets see where oil prices head then. Speculators aren't totally to blame for higher oil prices just a part of it. The penalty will tell just how much of a part of the higher prices they are responsible for. The problem is Wall Street won't ever let that happen so we'll never know.


Changing the rules for futures trading in the US would have little or no effect, because day trading would still be possible on exchanges everywhere else in the world.

Or should I say, it would have no positive effect-- destroying the domestic exchanges would be a bad thing.

 

[Jimmy9190]

Oil went up 55 cents a barrel just after Bernanke's press conference today. Now it's up over $113.00, at $113.26 just 25 minutes ago. The people involved in the oil and gas industry will use any world event, no matter how big or small and they use anything that anyone does and/or says to jack the prices up.

I know there are some legit reasons for gas prices and oil prices to increase. Nothing stays cheap forever but that doesn't mean prices can't remain reasonable. However I think there are too many greedy people and corrupt practices in the oil industry. Why has it skyrocketed like it has and no one does anything about it? The speculation and price manipulation inquiry that was recently announced will not find anything; it will get swept under the rug and ordinary people will never hear anything else about it.

I feel very disheartened and let down right now. We keep getting ripped off and lied to in the name of greed and profit, and no one does anything about it. It makes me sick.