Sorry if there's another thread on this.
I think this is the real looting.
Rape the earth, rip off customers, and get PAID!!
OIL FIRMS' PROFITS SOAR TO NEW HIGHS
Exxon Mobil sets record with 75% jump -- analysts blame market factors, not gouging
David R. Baker, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, October 28, 2005
Thanks to two hurricanes and a thirsty world, the oil industry's largest firms are reporting the kind of profits this week that put whole national economies to shame.
Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil corporation, set a new record Thursday with a $9.9 billion quarterly profit, a 75 percent jump from the same period last year. That broke the previous record set several hours earlier by Royal Dutch Shell, which made $9 billion. San Ramon's Chevron Corp. is due to report its profits today, and another blockbuster is all but assured.
Such a monumental tide of black ink is raising suspicions from Capitol Hill to the corner gas station that the oil giants are taking advantage of supply interruptions to squeeze their customers.
"Sure, we're being gouged," Bruce Williams, 47, of Hercules said as he filled up his Dodge Caravan on Thursday at a San Francisco service station that charged $2.86 for a gallon of regular.
"I don't believe these prices are the truth," he said before glancing at the pump. "I'm at $45, and I'm not filled up yet."
But experts say that big profits are more a reflection of the soaring price of crude oil than of any post-hurricane manipulations.
"The calculation's pretty simple: oil prices are about $40 higher than we thought they'd be back in 2003," said Severin Borenstein, director of the University of California Energy Institute. "That's going to show up in the profits."
The industry's super-sized profits are being matched by staggering sales. Exxon Mobil topped $100 billion in revenue in just three months. Shell fell just shy of $95 billion.
Many countries -- including oil-rich Kuwait, Libya and Qatar -- produce less than $100 billion each year in gross domestic product.
Even for an industry accustomed to spectacular booms and busts, the sheer scale of the current oil boom is hard to fathom.
Crude prices have soared to heights not seen since the oil shocks of the 1970s and early 1980s after adjustment for inflation. Fueled by growing worldwide oil demand, those prices were climbing before hurricanes Katrina and Rita plowed through the Gulf of Mexico's oil wells. Oil prices haven't closed below $60 per barrel since the storms hit. For most of the past two decades, $30 was considered high.
Complaints about gouging have caught the attention of Capitol Hill. Senate Democrats are starting to line up behind a bill to tax the oil companies' "windfall profits," making an exception for any money the firms plow back into finding and tapping new oil fields. Sen. Barbara Boxer voiced her support for it Thursday.
"The facts are clear: Oil companies are making massive profits," she said in a prepared statement. "Our families are hurting. Businesses are hurting. And the economy is in real trouble."
Oil industry analysts, however, say the companies aren't registering radically higher profits since the hurricane.
I think this is the real looting.
Rape the earth, rip off customers, and get PAID!!
OIL FIRMS' PROFITS SOAR TO NEW HIGHS
Exxon Mobil sets record with 75% jump -- analysts blame market factors, not gouging
David R. Baker, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, October 28, 2005
Thanks to two hurricanes and a thirsty world, the oil industry's largest firms are reporting the kind of profits this week that put whole national economies to shame.
Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil corporation, set a new record Thursday with a $9.9 billion quarterly profit, a 75 percent jump from the same period last year. That broke the previous record set several hours earlier by Royal Dutch Shell, which made $9 billion. San Ramon's Chevron Corp. is due to report its profits today, and another blockbuster is all but assured.
Such a monumental tide of black ink is raising suspicions from Capitol Hill to the corner gas station that the oil giants are taking advantage of supply interruptions to squeeze their customers.
"Sure, we're being gouged," Bruce Williams, 47, of Hercules said as he filled up his Dodge Caravan on Thursday at a San Francisco service station that charged $2.86 for a gallon of regular.
"I don't believe these prices are the truth," he said before glancing at the pump. "I'm at $45, and I'm not filled up yet."
But experts say that big profits are more a reflection of the soaring price of crude oil than of any post-hurricane manipulations.
"The calculation's pretty simple: oil prices are about $40 higher than we thought they'd be back in 2003," said Severin Borenstein, director of the University of California Energy Institute. "That's going to show up in the profits."
The industry's super-sized profits are being matched by staggering sales. Exxon Mobil topped $100 billion in revenue in just three months. Shell fell just shy of $95 billion.
Many countries -- including oil-rich Kuwait, Libya and Qatar -- produce less than $100 billion each year in gross domestic product.
Even for an industry accustomed to spectacular booms and busts, the sheer scale of the current oil boom is hard to fathom.
Crude prices have soared to heights not seen since the oil shocks of the 1970s and early 1980s after adjustment for inflation. Fueled by growing worldwide oil demand, those prices were climbing before hurricanes Katrina and Rita plowed through the Gulf of Mexico's oil wells. Oil prices haven't closed below $60 per barrel since the storms hit. For most of the past two decades, $30 was considered high.
Complaints about gouging have caught the attention of Capitol Hill. Senate Democrats are starting to line up behind a bill to tax the oil companies' "windfall profits," making an exception for any money the firms plow back into finding and tapping new oil fields. Sen. Barbara Boxer voiced her support for it Thursday.
"The facts are clear: Oil companies are making massive profits," she said in a prepared statement. "Our families are hurting. Businesses are hurting. And the economy is in real trouble."
Oil industry analysts, however, say the companies aren't registering radically higher profits since the hurricane.