Serious Money: Who gets what from $3/$4 gas?

Look up Gull Island Alaska

Let me introduce myself, my name is Kunta Kinte and 0 % reserve is my nomination for the Nobel Prize. Is it the key of my salvation or it is the reason for my starvation, you decide. God bless Plunge Protection Team.

Nice article, who do you work for, the oil companies?

First off oil is a monopoly controlled by the oil cartel. So the theory of free trade is pure lies. It is people like you who lie to the American public so that they do not know what is really going on.

Further more the whole economy is affected by these high oil prices. We have no choice but to purchase these products as we need them for our survival.

Lastly no one is complaining about a company making a profit, But when there is a monopoly the rules of supply and demand no longer apply. It is therefore unjust enrichment at the expense of our citizens when a company makes more money than any
other Company in the world on an item we need.

Joe,

Thank you for your comments, but I believe you have made several statements that are misguided based on limited information.

1) It is only natural that the largest company (XOM) on the stock exchange make the largest amount of money. If you do your homework you will find they do not make the highest profit margins even at higher oil prices.

2) You will find that they make even less if you take a five or ten year avergage instead of looking at the best year.

3) What oil cartel are you writing about the top 7 private oil companies control less than 13% of the world supply.

4) OPEC is a cartel that consists of oil producing countries and has increased production several times over the past few years but demand is increasing even faster.

5) The price of oil is effected dramatically by our devalued currency more than OPEC. If they wanted higher prices why did they wait until the last two years instead of increasing them many years ago, leaving oil at 15 to 30 dollars per barrel for ten years?

If you were just criticizing me I would let your comments stand, but you have given people misinformation that might prevent us from taking more serious actions like developing greater energy independence through alternatives and more efficiency; reducing federal spending and increasing productivity and trade, etc.

Peace

Let us all keep in mind, that we pay significantly more per oz./gsallon/whateber for BOTTLED WATER than we do for gas. Gas is incredibly cheap, still. Sure, I feel the pinch like everyone else, but because a company has a product we need, this alone entitles them to make big money, and big profits. Squashing this right is simply unamerican and wrong.

Gas has to be mined, from hundreds of miles underthe surface, shipped, refined, shipped again, and then pumped into a location where we, as consumers can put it into our cars, etc. There is a significant cost to this. As consumers, we can choose to extract our own oil, refine it, and pump it into our cars, but the fact remains, this would not be economical for us to do so. The person or company that does this, well, they deserve to charge for it.

Compare this to bottled water, which is for the most part, pulled from a "local" well, processed somewhat (maybe), and then put in a bottle on the shelf.

When you break it down, gas is cheap, water is expensive.

I remember seeing on CNN one time, a guy being interviewed at a gas station, complaining that because of high gas prices, his family would hav to forego their family vacation that year, to their SECOND HOME (vacation home). Seriously, how far out of whack is that!

Amen to Sheldon. Frequently people write something that they know nothing about and to make matters worse do not have the ability nor the desire to find the correct answer thru a rational thought process. If the shoe fits, ect, ect

ExxonMobil and other large oil companies helped build the industrial base of the United States. Their corporate citizenship should not be cast down the drain because India and China are putting a strain on global oil supply and the dollar has been weakened by the Bush Administration's ruinous economic and energy policies.

The dollar valuation of petroleum has, in an historic sense, been a massive value for Americans and now is causing a bit of additional pain as the US Dollar's value has further declined based on unwise economic and foreign relations fiascos.

ExxonMobil and companies like it are best prepared to act as the leaders in a transitional energy economy that will prevail for the next 100 years and might still be energy leaders in the future post petroleum economy. In the meantime blaming ExxonMobil for the price of oil is absurd, short sighted and shows a lack of sophistication.

ExxonMobil's profit on a gallon of gasoline is nine cents, according to the American Petroleum Institute. It was nine cents a gallon when oil was $10 a barrel and continues the same through now, regardless of cost at the pump. Liberal media loves to build anti-big oil hate, which is in truth hate against millions of folks on pensions who are dependent on oil company dividends. I'm a senior retiree-- that's me, Big Bad Oil. Know your enemies!