Big Oil or Big Lube Job BY Big Business

[deathb4disco]

DeathB4...Who sets the price of gas? If it's supply and demand then why is it $3 and not $10 or $2

"Who" doesn't set anything. The market forces of supply and demand set the price. The price of ANYTHING is where the supply curve crosses the demand curve. The price could easily be $10 or $2 if either the supply or the demand shifted.

If you tripled your guiding rates, would you triple your profits? No, because the market wouldn't let you. People would just use other, cheaper guides (although I'm sure you've a very good guide.)

The market for gasoline is MUCH more efficient than the market for guiding because gas is a perfectly homogenous product. Shell's gas in no better than Exxon's. It's all gas.

The market is not quite as efficient for guiding because it is NOT homogenous. Maybe your boat is nicer than other guides. Maybe your tackle is better. Maybe you tell funnier jokes. All these things give you slightly more leeway in your rates, but not much.

[sac-a-lait]

you keep going back to the old law of supply and demand and I tell you that FOR GAS I DON'T THINK IT WORKS when you have FORCES behind it CONSPIRING to CONTROL THE PRICE. Bottom LINE. We see it's effects in todays REAL WORLD. Do you go outside? You're comparing apples to oranges and I knew it was coming.

[deathb4disco]

Yessir something is wrong, it is called capitalism, it promotes greed. Gawd I love this country.....

Capitalism is not perfect, but it's better than any of the alternatives.

Here's a satellite picture of North and South Korea at night. Guess which one is the capitalist country.

[sac-a-lait]

So fear works better than addressing the issues of what I think's illegal activities by US oil companies.

[ohail6]

I say lets just vote out any politicians that are involved with oil:D That way we could start with a clean slate!!!!(probably wouldn't leave too many)

They say our president is a oil man (and I agree) what about Mr. vise!!!!!He may have alittle himself!!!

Greed, oil, and politics what a great combo!!!!

[deathb4disco]

you keep going back to the old law of supply and demand and I tell you that FOR GAS I DON'T THINK IT WORKS

Rick, no economist outside of Cuba or North Korea would agree with you.

when you have FORCES behind it CONSPIRING to CONTROL THE PRICE.

I'll quote Thomas Sowell again:

"Those conspiracy theories have been investigated time and again, without uncovering anything."

And if the oil companies were conspiring, don't you think they'd conspire to make more than 10 cents on the dollar?

You're comparing apples to oranges and I knew it was coming.

[deathb4disco]

So fear works better than addressing the issues of what I think is illegal activities by US oil companies.

[sac-a-lait]

10 cents on the dollar when you are talking about a TRILLION dollars isn't chump change...happend to be guess what...A RECORD IN THE HISTORY OF AMERICA...Isn't that strange to you...I guess it was all just perfect timing...100 years of timing...I wonder if you think JFK was killed by Jee Harvey and a single bullet too, DeathB4...

Cars could have been made to run on sea-water...But guess what, too easy and cheap and ANYONE could make their own fuel. Do you think they would ever let something like that happen?

[deathb4disco]

10 cents on the dollar when you are talking about a TRILLION dollars isn't chump change...happend to be guess what...A RECORD IN THE HISTORY OF AMERICA...Isn't that strange to you...I guess it was all just perfect timing...100 years of timing...I wonder if you think JFK was killed by Jee Harvey and a single bullet too, DeathB4...

I grant you it's not chump change, but a 10% profit margin is nothing to write home about in any business. How much profit should an oil company make?

Also, these articles that tout record oil company profits NEVER talk about the huges losses the oil companies have taken in the past. The timing sure wasn't perfect during those years.

With regards to JFK, I've always been kind of doubtful about the official story, but I would like to read Vincent Bugliosi's new book on the subject.

[Bayou Boy]

I have been working in the oilfield for 25 years. My career has been working on land and offshore with wells on day to day operations. Of the 25 years I have been in a supervisior and management position which allows me to look at the cost to drill these wells, the money that is spent without returns when the well that is drilled is a dry hole, the money that is tied up for years before the oil and gas can be sent to market due to weather (Kertina-Rita), technologly to develope the correct equipment to protect to envoiment and the list goes on. Also have you every though were we would be without companies like Exxon, shell, etc. These companies have invented things we use in our everyday life.
China is getting off the bikes and into automobiles. They are sucking up the supply.
The population of the world is growing everyday causing the supply to rise.
The world itself is calling for the supply to increase due to the way we live.

I think the price of a barrel of oil is very high but when I see how much money that is spent to get a raw barrel of oil to the planet to make gasoline I can see why the price is so high for a gallon of gas.

The min. wage has not increased and the price of everything is on the rise. No I am not trying to justify the cost of gas because it is effecting my family also, but before we bash the oil co. take a good look at what has to be done to get that gasoline to the pumps, the jobs it creates and everything that is depending on oil.

And for the profits, a percentage of this money is reinvested in the company which starts the cycle back over.

Also there are some states that refuse to let oil companies drill off their coast and in some protected land. This also cripples the supply.

The technology that is needed these days to get the deep oil has not yet been developed. The demand is larger than the supply.