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Off
the Beaten Path - This is Extortion!
By John Crawford September 1st, 2005 Ok, this is not about Scifi, unless you've had your head in the sand the last few years, you'll know what I'm talking about. Everyone's talking about the price of gas. It's beyond crazy, it's beyond outrageous, it's EXTORTION. What I don't understand is if the US has a 30 day oil reserve, why does every little thing immediately affect the current price of gas? Some of it is the retail stations trying to stay ahead, but they are paying a hefty price themselves. Most stations only make a few cents on each gallon of gas they sell, or at least that's what we are lead to believe. Generally, we've been able to select from many retailers, and the price wasn't all that different, maybe a few cents. But within the last week, things have just gone haywire. While I was out today, for example, I noticed the Safeway gas station was a whopping $3.45 for regular. I didn't need to buy gas today, I bought it yesterday at Exxon for $2.87 for regular. I'll occasionally plan my fill-ups so I can buy a Safeway because they give 3 cents a gallon discounts for club members. But NOT TODAY, that's for sure. Meanwhile, the Shell station across the street was selling regular gas for $2.84 a gallon. Now tell me, just to check my sanity, who would you buy from? Actually, this is turning out to be like voting for president, choosing the least of all evils. It's a no-win situation, gas should be 84 cents a gallon, not $2.84 a gallon. I'd like to amplify what Bill O'Reilly, from Fox News said. "Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman should inform American oil companies not to profiteer. In fact, I think their profits should be cut back by 20 percent to spare America's pain. Any oil company that does not voluntarily comply with that should be exposed." (The Straight Talk About Katrina). Now, let's take a look at the big oil companies financial reports. As you may have heard from television or newspaper reports, ExxonMobile has posted hefty profits this year, $15.5 billion, just for the first two quarters this year (Exxon Mobil Corporation Announces Estimated Second Quarter 2005 Results). Chevron reported a 2nd quarter profit of $3.7 billion (CHEVRON REPORTS SECOND QUARTER NET INCOME OF $3.7 BILLION) . ConocoPhillips Reports Second-Quarter Net Income of $3.1 Billion. Sunoco reported 2nd quarter profit of only $242 million (SUNOCO REPORTS SECOND QUARTER RESULTS). It doesn't take a brain surgeon to see that we are getting gouged to death. If i was a stockholder for Exxon, I'd be praying that gas goes to $10 a gallon. Let's go back to the The Straight Talk About Katrina column. Mr. O'Reilly said "President Bush should ask OPEC to drop the price of oil $15 a barrel tomorrow. It costs OPEC about $4 a barrel to produce and market the crude. They're getting $70 a barrel on the open market. Do the math. This is a gouge." Well, let's take a look at OPEC. According to their website (http://www.opec.org), on August 31st, oil was $61.10 a barrel. Not wuite the $70 a barrel quoted, but still rediculously high. That's still about $57 a barrel profit, multiply that by 82 million barrels a day (OPEC Monthly Oil Market Report for August 2005). That's $4.674 billion a day going into their pockets, EVERYDAY, that's Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. That is Extortion! John Crawford is computer geek by day and a scifi fan by night. |
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