kontiki wrote in
:

Oil companies profit margins are about average compared with other
industries. As far as the price of oil... its not controlled by the
oil companies, it is set by the world-wide marketplace. The US could
be a bigger producer of oil but it chooses not to (for a number of
reasons) therefore it is much more at the mercy of Opec and the
geopolitical forces throughout the world.

If the US actually had a *real* energy policy to _include_ more
production, nuclear and alternatives then there would be immediate
downward pressure on worlwide prices. But we don't (that requires
actual intelligent leadership and the US has none) so we are in
the situation of paying out the nose with dollars that are worth less.

An increase of production of alternatives would only stand to drive the price
of oil even further up, based on the law of supply and demand...

Furthermore, it has been documented that oil companies and oil refineries
were absorbing some of the increased costs of oil when all of this started in
04 and 05... However, it has also been documented that oil companies have
increased their profit margins substantially since that time. San Francisco
Chronicle, for example, reported in March that oil refineries had DOUBLED
their profit margins...