you make a valid point but explorers also get deductions on dry holes and a million other expenses. Once you have a working well, which those deductions are a factor in it coming about in the first place,is when the tax situation get crazy.
No numbers because i’m not doing all that work although probably very available online.
Company with a producing well has income. they pay taxes on that to every jurisdiction possible. The refiner pays a tax on their income. Those trucks you see at the gas station delivering oil? They too pay taxes.The gas station, independent or whatever, they pay several taxes.
Every step of the way is taxed. The people working for these companies, some on Freep i imagine, they pay taxes on their income too.
Finally, to show you the magnitude of what everything add up to.
“An oil barrel (abbreviated as bbl) is a unit of volume whose definition has not been universally standardized. In the United States and Canada, an oil barrel is defined as 42 US gallons, which is about 159 litres[9] or 35 imperial gallons,[10] and it can also be defined in those units, depending on the context.”
Today the cost of a barrel of oil is roughly $42.00 per barrel making the math easy. Its $1.00.
Also,”(Reuters) - The average price of gasoline in the United States resumed its slide over the past two weeks, dropping 11 cents to $2.14 a gallon, the lowest since late January, according to a Lundberg survey released on Sunday.”
So the markup, taxes, profits. is currently 107% to the retail customer.
I just did more work than i intended to.
Also note that a barrel of oil - 42 gallons - produces a smaller amount of gas because of the refinery process. So you are losing some quantity converting oil to gas, its not a 100% conversion process.