I realize that they do regular maintenance, I just wish they would stop blaming all of the high prices on the refinery issue, when the politicians won’t drill in Alaska and won’t approve new refineries. I am sick and tired of the oil companies making obscene profits at the expense of working people. Enough is enough. If they continue their current pattern, the next administration could very well step back in and start regulating again. Is that what anyone wants?
Making an 8% margin is not obscene. You are only parroting the ignorant MSM and liberal whinings. That's crazy talk.
The shame is that the government makes more off of oil than the oil companies...and they don’t do a thing for it.
The problems are manifold. We need new refineries. We need to drill in Alaska, the Gulf off of Florida...
Exxon-Mobil...
or Coca-Cola.
Look it as a percentage of return on investment.
Why?
Because though the numbers seem huge, so is the investment.
By the time the well I am working is completed, there will be well over 6 million dollars wrapped up in bringing this one well on line.
Just a land rig, nothing really exhorbitant going on here.
I can't give you a guess at estimated production, or the rate, but it would take the daily output from thousands of these wells to supply the East coast alone.
Those costs are just for drilling and putting the well on line, not for transport or refining the product, or transport again to retail facillities.
There are no guarantees any given well will produce, either, and there are definitely multiwell exploration projects where the last well is drilled first.
As for oil companies, they provide outstanding opportunity for employment, directly and indirectly, for persons of all educational levels, from roustabouts to Heads of Exploration and CEOs. So I'm not buying how they are doing anything at "the expense of the working people". THey are paying quite a few of "the working people" for their labors.
As for the next administration starting regulating again, They (assuming you mean the government) have never stopped regulating in my lifetime, and I'm a great-grandpa. They have only found new ways to regulate, or "justify" regulations and taxes, and frankly, this tax the oil companies and consumers and blame the oil companies gambit is getting tired and thin.
Please educate yourself about the industry, the hours we work (CEOs are few and far between, many of us get our hands dirty), the places we work, and conditions we work under before you assume someone is getting screwed.
We buy gasoline, diesel, and other petroleum products, too.
As for the politicians drilling anywhere, the only place they drill is into our paychecks.
It is sad they do not have the stones to do so without blaming others.
It's certainly what the Democrats want.
If you really dislike oil companies that much, do your best to conserve, buy a hybrid, bicycle,or moped...etc.
As an individual you do your best to invest which brings you the best money, why can't the oil companies? As another poster said, you have been duped by MSM.
They make less rate of return on their investment than most other industries. The numbers seem huge because the companies are huge.
All you're saying is that you're philosophically opposed to huge companies which is irrational.
Thanks to to this wonderful information age we now live in, your voice has been heard by the oil company owners. This week I sold off the last of my oil company stock. I won't be making any more oil profits, and those in the business will be laying off oil workers.
If you get a chance, please let me know if how this is going to put money into the pockets of those "working people" you were referring to.
The oil company profit margin is about 8%. That's not 'obscene', and is, in fact, pretty low as compared to many other industries. (See sample articles below.)
http://txfx.net/2005/10/30/mommy-what-is-a-profit-margin/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8646744/