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Oldgringo wrote:Blah, blah & blah.

The bottom line, sans the horsefeathers, is that the American consumer is paying more than ever before for auto fuels and heating oils, etc.

As sumyungai suggests, "...turn down the heat and walk to work or the unemployment office, etc. if the price of fuel is to high...". Now then, if you don't have bills, rent, a job, a family, etc., that's a fair suggestion. It works really well if someone or something else is supporting you, eh?

That's true, but I don't blame the oil companies for the price of oil. Who do you blame?

sumyungai wrote:

Blindref757 wrote:Say what you want, but we (the folks) are getting the shaft. Oil that is pumped out of my back yard on American soil, is being refined and sent to China/India...and I'm paying for it every time I buy gas?

No. They're paying for their gas and you're paying for yours. If you think the price is too high, buy less.

Oil companies pay us (the U.S. Gov't) twice for the oil. First they pay a fee to lease the federal "property" to explore and drill. Then they pay us (the U.S. Gov't) a royalty on any oil they pump out. Then they get to sell the oil for a profit after collecting, marketing, delivering, and all other costs involved. This is all governed by contracts. I'm no fan of Ron Paul, but he does drive home the fact that one of the primary jobs of the federal gov't is to "protect" contracts. If they drill on private land, it's the same. They pay the owner for the privilege of exploration, and pay royalties if anything is found and pumped out.

It's not how much profit an oil company makes, its the percent of profit. Everyone tags Exxon-Mobile, for example for the amount of profit, but fail to look at the percent of profit. The simple fact is that oil companies are selling a huge amount of oil due to worldwide demand. That puts the amount of profit through the roof, but the percent of profit may rise slightly or fall slightly depending on the price of oil which is NOT set by oil companies. Exxon's profit in Dec. 2011 was 7.73%. Their profit has never been over 11% that I know of, and their average profit was 8.42% since 2007. That's small compared to many corporations and businesses that easily top 20%.

As to who is making all this money, it's the shareholders. That may be you in your retirement account. I'm retired and I am in a guaranteed interest account (playing it safe), and have no idea where it is invested. Who knows I may be an Oil Barron
Here's the Exxon-Mobile chart:

http://ycharts.com/companies/XOM/profit_margin" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;