If gas company are reporting  over 100% profit for the year , why are we paying so  much for gas ?
476189
Because they are a bunch of low down, dirty,rotten, greedy SONSOFBITCHES, and our Government lets them get away with it
1173170
Why do you think the gas prices suddenly went sky high?  There is NO shortage....no lines, plenty  of gas....but they get MORE TAXES with higher gas prices.   Government's answer to paying for war.
463011
No, profits are the American way. I doubt you were even born when the oil companies were struggling back in the mid-seventies and early eighties. Aquisitions and mergers have made them some of the strongest American companies.\nThere are now more known oil reserves world wide than ever before. There is also more demand than ever before. Hence oil is over $72 per barrel. We could get all we need from the Canadian oil sand deposits and it would be cheap. But it is being shipped around the world.\nFigure that
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.
122255
The gas companies practice what is known as zone pricing. They look at how much money people in a certain area make and then set the price from there. It allows them to charge people who will pay more a top dollar price while still selling to the poor at a price they can afford. That is why some independent gas stations will have prices that are much lower then the big corporations, they don't have zone pricing.
1077356
Because Katrina and Rita destroyed the Gulf's output and the oil companies are greedy. I have nothing against a company making "profits" but "record profits" are an issue ESPECIALLY when they're being subsidized by the government due to some hearings in the Spring of 2005 when they said they just couldn't turn a profit without some government help. Kind of ironic that they now have RECORD profits isn't it?
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.
1006856
I would like to know if when you are pumping gas and you pre pay. do you really get your monies worth? Don't you notice that sometimes when the price gets to you pre paid amount the pressure drops significantly? How do you know gas is still coming out? How do you know it doesn't stop long before that mark? Its interesting to think about. Cause i know that there are several times when i swear i get more gas at one station than i get at others. And also does a higher grade of gas get you more miles per gallon? whats that all about?
1019271
Because as fiddlesticks9 said its a way to attract the consumer.  But what he forgot to mention is that in order to actually work you need the mindless consumers, who will see 1.99 as less then 2 and will always go to buy it from the one that has 1.99 price.\n\nPlus the true reason behind it is that when they buy the gas from the supplier, they are charges in the same manner.
189352
I am trying to answer this assuming that you are asking it in an accountants point of view\n\nIts normal that we make merry when we make more profits...\n\nIf we calculate profits by considering the expenses that we pay (in cash or otherwise), then we may not be preparing ourselves for the future.... \n\n\nSay if you have a profit of $100,000 without charging depreciation and depreciation is $80,000, it would be $20,000 net after depreciation.\n\nHad you not took depreciation into consideration, you might throw a party spending a considerable amount of money (considering the $100,000 profit made it may sound reasonable).\n\nBut when you take depreciation into account you may not do so since your profit figure is meagre ($20,000)\n\nIt makes you think in  a conservative manner..\n\n\nhttp://www.futureaccountant.com/
728064
Very Profitable. The oil supply is dwindling. If the problems aren't fixed now then they will when the price goes higher.
428593
Right now, Oil/Petroleum Companies.  They showed record profits in 2005.
1118662
Never!Here in Europe gas is about 5.5 $ per gallon. The problem is not the price of gas. The real issue is having a lifestyle that complies with a sustainable environment. So don't ask yourself about the gas-prices.Ask yourself about how much gas you're use compared to how much gas you should be using
1026029
Greed.  Plain and simple.  Most store owners will tell you they make very little money on the gas.  It's all the soda, beer, smokes, and snacks that brings in the buck. But if they can get an extra few cents profit on gas, they will nickle and dime you to death!
377598
Believe me you don't want the federal price controls back on gasoline. Something makes me sure you're not old enough to remember what happened in 1973, but that aside, it is egregious for a company to compensate any executive like that. Those earning could be retained and probably doubled in a matter of five years on simple investments, much less research, development and exploration. How about infrastructure improvements like new refineries and pipelines?\n\nThis madness in U.S. and U.K. corporate culture with the salaries and bonuses is going to implode just like the nonsense with the stock market did 5 years ago. Investors beware! Can anyone say Dick Grasso?
406532
Because all of the gas stations are buying from the same supplier.  They all mark it up a couple of cents and sell at the same price.  I suppose it's collusion in a small way because they've agreed to the same price, but that's more of a running tradition.  Like if Burger King and McDonald's charge about the same price for burgers, are they colluding or is it just because they have the same costs and charge about the same?\n\nThe Sherman Act deals more with malicious fixing where they're doing things to drive out competition.  There are been tons of inquiries made into the price manipulation for the oil industry over the past few years, and none of them have found anything.  Most of the inquiries have concluded that the prices are from supply and demand, not price gouging.  You could argue it's from "bribes" or whatever, but there are no indications or concrete, credible sources to support this claim.\n\nThere's a bit more to read here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5365439
562396
Bush and the oil companies record profits. If there wasn't record profits there wouldn't be any problem. They are gouging America, and Bush is allowing it to happen.