In article ,
Dave wrote:

Dan wrote:
Steve Hix wrote:
In article ,
Matt Whiting wrote:

Sliker wrote:
On Wed, 30 Apr 2008 08:26:24 -0700 (PDT), BobR
wrote:

All the complainers have to do is just do the math. At todays price of
$120 a barrel, divided by 42 gallons = 2.86 a gallon. In my area,
regular is selling for 3:50 a gallon. That leaves 64 cents a gallon to
refine it, transport it, leave some profit for the oil company and gas
station, and includes the taxes. It's the price of crude that's
killing us, not the oil companies.
Really? Have you noticed the profits of many of the large oil
companies of late?

The large absolute values of major energy companies' profits results
from the much larger values of their costs of doing business.

Try looking at the profits as a percentage of total operational costs.

They're down around 10% or so, which is pretty typical for healthy
companies in other fields.

And a lot lower than many other companies.

The U.S. pays a lot less for gasoline than may other countries. I
think it's over $18.00 (U.S.) per gallon in Aruba.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

The oil companies don't own oil wells?

The oil companies don't set the taxes paid by customers, for one thing.

And in some countries, no, they don't own the wells.