Review suggests Big Oil manipulated gas prices [THEY WOULDN'T DO THAT]

The Associated Press ^ | Nov. 26, 2006 | JEFF DONN

[Dave Burns]

Shell is a foreign owed Oil company.

[the invisib1e hand]

[THEY WOULDN'T DO THAT]

The probably wouldn't do that, any more than the Pope would incite terrorism, but that wouldn't prevent AP from insinuating it.

What would conspiracy theorists do without AP?

[Random Access]

Perhaps some of the MSM papers should buy up some of the oil sites and see if they can turn a profit that way. They sure aren't making any money pumping liberal bias.

Isn't it amazing how much these reporters know about business administration and economics yet their papers are going still going broke?

[concerned about politics]

That's why the rumor sounded so wrong here in California's lower San Joaquin Valley, where petroleum has produced more riches than the gold rush. Why would Shell Oil Co. close its Bakersfield refinery? Why scrap a profit maker?

Why would an oil company want to stay in liberal California? That's what I'd like to know.

[Dog Gone]

1999 was a disastrous year for oil companies. When the AP uses that year as a baseline for price increases, it's using a year when oil companies were going belly up, bleeding red ink, and actually producing oil at a loss.

[rhombus]

However upsetting to drivers, such tactics are usually viewed as legal. "A decision to limit supply does not violate the antitrust laws, absent some agreement among firms," regulators wrote in one FTC report. "A handful of very large companies realize it's in their mutual interest to keep prices as high as possible," said Tyson Slocum, an energy expert at Public Citizen. "I don't think they're sitting around a table smoking cigars and price fixing, but I think there are sophisticated ways to manipulate the market."

Here's the crux of it. Of course they don't have to "sit around the table smoking cigars" but neither did Move.Org and the Kerry campaign have to smoke to coordinate and collude on issues.

[kerryusama04]

A) Who in the world wouldn't want to sell less product at a higher margin?

B) We'll be lucky is oil prices are only $100/barrell in 10 years. If the last 3 Congresses wouldn't drill, the next one sure the hell won't.

[FLOutdoorsman]

The fact that we have not been drilling like a madman and becoming independent from the Death Cults has really been troubling. You would kinda think it a National priority to do that.

[sgtyork]

Just like newspapers, media companies, transportation companies, retail companies, etc. oil companies establish a targeted return on capital. A certain facility such as an old refinery can be profitable ---but not to the level that the company sets. Also those large companies deal with set costs.

A smaller company such as this one can operate with fewer (union) costs, less focused hostility from the environmentalists and can accept a lower level of profits.

[Wuli]

As with EVERYTHING the LameStreamMedia does:

1. (From Rush)The severity of the charge is more important than the facts.

2. Peceptions (and the ability to create them) are everything , REGARDLESS OF THE TRUTH.

[flynmudd]

Oil prices are controlled by the free market. End of story.

[Dubya]

Those mean ole news people.

[Dubya]

Those mean ole news people.

[Dubya]

Those mean ole news people.

[kenavi]

It trades on the New York Stock Exchange. You can buy it. It is selling for under 10 times earning, which means the market doesn't think much of its future growth prospects. What do you think?

[Dog Gone]

The fact is that the industry has been drilling like a madman the past couple of years. The only thing that has constrained them is a lack of drilling rigs.


They're building more all the time, and the rig count is climbing every month.

[Dog Gone]

You buy into this crap. It's pretty obvious.

[FLOutdoorsman]

Dog

You got a link or stats for me?

Thanks for the help.

[Dubya]

You amaze me with your all wisdom about everything. Have a good day.