If Exxon-Mobile profitted $36 billion last year why are the gas prices still going up?
363648
How much they made in profits has nothing to do with the price of gas.  \n\nThere are quite a few reasons that gas prices are rising.  First, simple supply and demand. The price of the oil that is refined to make gas is rising.  This is because worldwide demand for oil is growing (think about China and India).  Right now due to our little war and the other unstable oil producing countries, worldwide oil production is not where it needs to be.  Secondly, with the increased demand for gas in this country, the current refinery system cannot meet demand.  The EPA has put a strangle hold on any new refineries.  There hasn't been a new refinery built in this country for 30 years.  Lastly, the government has allowed all of the major oil companies to either merge together or be acquired by foreign companies.  Exxon / Mobil, Chevron / Texaco, British Petroleum / Atlantic Richfield and Royal Ductch / Shell.\n\nAll of this is the perfect recipe for big profits.  Publicly traded oil companies like Exxon / Mobil are doing what they are supposed to be doing; maximizing shareholder value.  If you want someone to blame, blame the government.  They make the environmental laws.  They started the war.  They allowed all of the mergers.
69495
You have a point about oil revenues from Iraq paying for the war.  So far, production has not made this possible.  The government doesn't sell gas, oil companies do.  They sell their products at the price the market will bear, just like Home Depot, American Airlines, and Wendy's.  Exxon-Mobil made about 9.7 cents per dollar of revenue during their biggest quarter last year, which was their biggest quarter ever.  Want to know what your bank made?  Probably around 25 cents!! Wonder no more why interest rates are so low....the banks are pocketing the change, but you don't hear any uproar about that.   Oil companies typically make around 5.7 cents per dollar, lower than most industries.  If you want to live in a country that has price controls, try China, Cuba, or the former Soviet Union.  Didn't work out too well for them.
1109609
You know the cost of gas/petrol isn't really made as high as it is by the cost per barrell. The oil companies like Exxon, Esso, Chevron, etc. charge a lot more for their gas then the price per barrell.  If you do some research into it you'll see that the oil companies are making a huge profit on their product. Oil/petrol doesn't have to be as expensive as it is and they can still make a profit.\n\nTo answer your question though, I would say yes:\n\n"To date there has not been an obvious negative impact on the economy because of the price of oil. It is partly for that reason that the Federal Reserve is continuing to raise interest rates to help tame inflation."\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Price_of_Oil_and_The_Economy\n\nIt's very strange. The cost of oil is raised to huge prices by Exxon, Chevron, etc. which raises interest rates, which hurts the economy. Why?
149913
First, there are several "grades" of crude oil.  Heavier oil products less gasoline and lighter crudes produce more.  The average is around 19 1/2 gallons of gasoline per barrel of crude.\n\n"The 42-gallon barrel of crude oil makes about 19½ gallons of gasoline, 9 gallons of fuel oil, 4 gallons of jet fuel, and 11 gallons of other products, including lubricants, kerosene, asphalt, and petrochemical feedstocks to make plastics. [See also this EIA page] That adds up to more than 42 gallons because of something called "refinery gain" - the processing and chemical changes increase the density and hence the volume of the refined components. So, crudely (pun intended), a $37 barrel of crude represents about 88 cents a gallon to start with. That 88c represents the cost of production plus producer profit. Go up from there."
68168
Gas prices are set based on supply and demand. If more people are using gas or there is a lower amount of gas being produced then the prices will go up.\n\nThe recent increase in prices is probably due to the growing tension with Iran. If for some reason the oil from Iran is cut off, there will be less production.
486127
Declining oil resources and increased demand for oil and petroleum based products will drive prices up.  No-one would dispute this.  Many are optimistic about the market (see references below).  In fact, the oil industry in the United States has done very well under the circumstances.  Profits are up.  Way Up.\n\nUnlike other commodities, oil is complicated by heavy government involvement.  This tends to muddy the picture.  Political power applied through commercial interests and vast marketing efforts have lead the citizens of the US into a false sense of reality.  For example, the rise in SUV sales during the exact time when vehicles size and mass should be reduced.  Profit motivation coupled with buyer ignorance is not a rational economic path.\n\nGlobalization of the market is also coupled with globalization of the distribution system.  This very well might lead to more development in the area of alternative energy sources.  The most promising of these (at least for the American corn growers) is Ethanol.  This and bio-sourced oil products may hold the key to keeping prices down while allowing for expansion and development of economies worldwide.
439808
The general breakdown is\n\n-59% crude oil price\n-10% refining\n-11% marketing and distribution\n-20% taxes\n\nSo, with 75 per barrel, they can make about 19.5 gallons of gas and a few other products.  That's the bulk of the cost.  The refining and taxes are pretty much fixed in the short-term, so that's another 30% right there.  The gas companies and Exxon usually split the last 11%, with the oil companies taking most of that and then the individual gas stations marking it up the last few cents.\n\nEven if the oil companies wanted to be "generous," they couldn't do much more than around 5-10%, which would be around 20 cents savings total, not the few dollars that everyone is hoping for.
300860
no gas prices should go higher!!\n\nthen maybe fat a**es will stop driving their big fat SUV's, take a bus\nand other technologies will be developed\n\nthe gov't did not create the "gas problem" people being lazy did
18764
Stocks in public transport\nAs the price of oil goes up less people can afford to run their cars and so take the bus or train so their profits increase.\n\nStock in Alternative Fuels\nAs the price of oil goes up people begin to look for cheap forms of fuel, as the popularity of those fuels increases so their profits increase.
657572
Exxon currently, in terms of overall dollar. Profit margin though, don't know; probably Microsoft. exxon reported net income of 36 billion.
322862
Gas taxes provide the majority of the road upkeep in the country, which is underfunded as it is. How exactly would that help? Also, $.30 per gallon is not going to affect gas prices all that much. They will continue to go up, no matter what.
428556
For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY gasoline from The two biggest companies (which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL. If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon and Mobil gas buyers. It's really simple to do!! Now, don't wimp out on me at this point...keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!\n\nI am sending this note to about thirty people. If each of you send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300)... and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000) ... and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth generation of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers! . .\n\nIf those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it..... THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!\n\nAgain, all you have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all. (If you don't understand how we can reach 300 million and all you have to do is send this to 10 people.... well, let's face it, you just aren't a mathematician. But I am... so trust me on this one.)
581781
There is NOT a supply shortage. Even OPEC and Saudi Arabia are saying there's no shortage. They are saying the gas prices should not be anywhere near as high as they are. What's raising the cost is that oil companies are gouging everyone because they basically have a collective monopoly, even though they're supposed to be in competition with each other. That's why oil companies keep scoring record profits each year while average Americans are getting poorer.
825130
gas and oil prices are determined by supply and demand on the world market.  Neither oil companies nor republicans control prices. Only thing they could do is build more refineries, which would result in greater supplies of gasoline, which would reduce prices further.  Liberals don't like refineries, because they think they cause pollution  and are beholden to the environmental lobbyists.  Oil companies don't build refineries, because they can't with govt approval and they're making big profits as things are, so there's no incentive to build them.
68886
First, you have the price of a barrel of oil. It is set basically by OPEC and the futures market. The oil companies buy oil and this rate and send it to the refineries. Refineries then convert the oil in gasoline (among quite a lot else). Refineries in turn sell the gas to wholesalers. The wholesalers then sell to your local gas station.\n\nMany times you will see stations within a mile of each other with wildly different prices. The reason for this is quite simple: busier stations sell more gas, and therefore buy more gas than a slower station. When prices are going up, for example, the station that sold the gas faster will have to buy the more expensive gas while the slower station still has the less expensive stuff in the ground. Then people rush to the lower-priced station and the whole process repeats.\n\nGas stations make, on average, about 5-10 cents per gallon depending on the market. In short, they make more off the car wash or can of Coke than the 50 gallons of gas you just bought.
525345
In part, gas prices are determined by supply and demand.  Prices are also determined by how much foreign oil is purchased and then passed on to consumers. \nPoliticians and oil companies would have us believe that these two are the primary reasons for the increase in fuel prices, but this is because most Americans do not really look very hard at facts surrounding them on a daily basis, or do not put them together. The 1950's had gas at around 22 cents a gallon.  Yet even with our greater technology, the much increased ease of production, transport, and refinement should have us keeping pace with prices still around $1.00, with the cost of exploration being one of the few legitimate reasons for increasing the prices...of course combined with the reasons previously mentioned.  But this is not the case.  \nWhen hurricane Katrina approached the coast, the price of gas rose over 10 cents a gallon - before - the hurricane had done any damage.  Afterward, when production resumed its normal levels, prices did not subside.  Instead they continued to rise.  The second hurricane did little or no damage, but prices rose again...in the same pattern.  For a dozen years or more, oil companies have followed a pattern of every six to eight months, raising prices until public outcry became strong enough, then when it was lowered ten or twelve cents the public sighed a great sigh; while not really paying attention to the fact that the price was still ten or fifteen cents higher than it was.  \nThe hurricanes, combined with the merger of giant oil companies into mega corporations have removed the checks and balances that healthy competition made in keeping oil prices down.  From 14 to 36 billion in profits, these oil companies answer to no one.  Their CEO's hide under the guise that no one can specifically point their finger at one of them and lay the blame, and our government cannot do anything to one and not the others, so nothing is done.  The oil companies state to the senators that their prices have increased slower than any other comodity.  Yet the simple reason behind this eludes our leaders...the reason...because the oil companies are the catalyst for the rise in every other price.  A farmer, with a tiny edge of profit, cannot afford to absorb the gas prices as they are, and so the prices snowball into every other thing linked to them.  So, why do prices rise?  Well, aside from the legitimate reasons mentioned in the beginning, it is because there is no one who tells them that they have to stop.
302739
Poltical instability in the middle East is a cause for higher gas prices. It's ironic that Iraq is one of the least expensive places to buy gas in the world. The oil companies can't just jack up prices whenever they want, regardless of what you may have heard.