P.P.S. I don’t buy the 10 cents a gallon story. Many oil companies pump oil out of their own wells in international waters and pay only what it costs to extract and transfer it or on federal land and pay a fixed royalty that is far less than the current spot price. Why do you think their profits are at record levels? It isn’t because their sales were up by 50%.
It is because they are selling other petrochemicals at higher prices. Oil doesn't just go for fuel. It goes for plastics, chemicals, road tar, and hundreds of other uses. Check out their annual reports and you can see exactly where the revenue is coming from. A majority is international downstream (selling wholesale oil to other countries), second is non-fuel petrochemical sales, and the lowest profit margin item is oil for fuel production.
Their profits are setting records because of volume. They are selling every single gallon they can produce or import. Their gross profit doesn’t change the per until profit of $.10 a gallon.
Its because their sales and profits go up every year.
They have record profits every year.
Banks still make twice as much in profit margin as oil companies but nobody cares.