How much profit do the oil companies make per gallon of gasoline?

[Leo 9]

I know their propagandists' claims that it's only 8 cents per gallon is bogus, but how much exactly or approximately is it?

Be sure to include the fact that oil companies are also their own refiners and producers, something the right wing media clowns leave out when they say these companies have to pay the refiners and producers.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=oil+company+profits+per+gallon&btnG=Search

Thank you for helping me in doing my research on this.

I'll check back tomorrow.

[BeFree]

1. Well

Since the oil is the same stuff that's been in the ground for millions of years and the price when Clinton was in office was just a buck - and now it is three bucks - I'd say the profits are probably about 2 bucks a gallon more that it was back then.

[unpossibles]

2. it almost doesn't matter

even if it's as low as they claim (which I doubt), it is such a necessity of modern life that they make it up in volume.

To the people who say "it's cheaper than milk!" I reply that people don't need to buy gallons of milk a day just to get to work.

[taterguy]

3. No one forces people to buy gallons of gas to get to work

There are other viable options

[unpossibles]

5. well, true and not true

yes, many can ride a bike, the bus, or walk - and in fact I spent many years doing just those thing, but it is not always practical for eveyone to be able to do that either because of distance, disability, or other reasons.

While it's true that no one is "forced" to buy oil, you have to admit that most people will and do, and count it as necessary as living in a shelter of some sort, another thing no one is "forced" to do.

Plus there are many other aspects to oil consumption not related to driving, from food production to plastics. There are other alternatives to those as well, but we need to do a lot of work to get there.

[valerief]

6. Yes, we're all born wealthy and don't need to get to work. nt

[taterguy]

7. I wasn't born with money and I work five days a week

I just choose to live close enough to my job to get there without a car.

[valerief]

8. Not all people can do that was my point. nt

[taterguy]

9. Not all people can choose where they live?

Last time I checked people in the USA could generally live anywhere they wanted to.

If your point was that some people "have" to drive then why did you mention ancestral wealth?

[valerief]

10. No. All people can't live where they want in America. nt

[taterguy]

11. Why? nt

[valerief]

14. I'll bet you're white. nt

[taterguy]

15. And that answers my question how? nt

[valerief]

16. And young. nt

[taterguy]

18. I wish

[DemocratSinceBirth]

12. The Further From The City The Less Expensive It Is To Live

What if you worked in downtown Manhattan?

A loft there is $4,000.00 a month...

[taterguy]

13. If I worked in Manhattan I'd take mass transit to work

Problem solved

[DemocratSinceBirth]

17. What If You Lived In An Area Where There Isn't Mass Transit?

eom

[valerief]

19. Yes, after getting the shaft from your employer of 25 years, you're forced

to take on two or three jobs to support your family to pay for health insurance. And there's no dependable mass transit to any of the jobs so that you'll make it to them on time.

And you're over 50 so jobs aren't exactly a dime a dozen.

And there are a ton of other social barriers that prevent you from selling your modest home to purchase an even more modest one in a more convenient place.

Easiest, cheapest, less stressful solution: drive to all the jobs.

[uppityperson]

20. Sometimes it costs too much to live close and there is no mass transit

Sometimes the trade-off in paying for a car gas insurance is that you can afford a place to live.

[ComerPerro]

25. It never fails. Some arrogant jerk always shows up with a post like that

[Leo 9]

29. Good for you and for anyone who can do that, however...

...most people people can't do without, or without the things trucked in by burning gas.

While greater efficiency of use, and developing alternatives to burning things to get energy is desirable, it has nothing to do with coming up with a formula for computing how much profit is made by the oil companies on each gallon of gasoline sold.

[TX-RAT]

4. oil companies are also their own refiners and producers,

That's not true, very few oil companies are their own refiners. There are 39 oil producing states with thousands of independent producers, with many hauling or pumping their oil to independent refineries.

[bicentennial_baby]

21. I'd look to OPEC first, but...

that's just me. :shrug:

[Leo 9]

32. The question is not, "What factors drive prices higher?"

The question is, "How much profit is made per gallon of gasoline by oil companies?"

It seems to me that a key part of that question and how you figure it is what is meant by "oil companies".

Is that all oil companies everywhere averaged out no matter how small?

Does that include state owned oil companies such as what the saudis have?

Or could it be as simple as just dividing the profits of ExonMobile by the number of gallons they sold?

If so, then that number would be very high.

[northzax]

22. you know?

well obviously, since the google search you provided points out that ConocoPhillips makes a profit of about ten cents a gallon.

[Leo 9]

23. According to which website?

This one has another figure.

http://shotsacrossthebow.com/archives/002431.html

No, I don't believe they make only that per gallon either.

As I said, they are often also the producers, and so making producers profits.

Come on DUers.

These are the sort of figures we all need to have on hand so that they may roll off our tongues.

[northzax]

24. you can't break it down that easily

these are huge multinational corporations, how do you actually define 'profit on a gallon'? a gallon pumped from the ground? a gallon refined? a gallon sold at the pump? do you include by-products of processing that are also sold? the natural gas found alongside petroleum? transport profits? capital expenses? legal fees? bribes? owner operated stations, or those owned by the companies? E87 blend, or pure gasoline? wholesaled gasoline or retailed gasoline? before EBIDTA or after? These are all important questions to determine before you can actually answer. ExxonMobil, for instance, is not simply a gasoline company, they are an extractor of oil and gas, a refiner, a transporter, a wholesaler, a retailer, and a vendor of hundreds of other products made from petroleum (from Vaseline to plastics)

ExxonMobil reports in this http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/01/AR2007020100452.html">WashPost article that 'after-tax' earnings on oil in the 4th quarter of 2006 were $15.99/bbl (a bbl is 31 US gallons of petroleum). that is before the costs of transport, refining or retiailing. They make a relatively small proportion of their money selling you gasoline, two thirds of their profit (according to that article) is from the production of oil and natural gas, most of which they sell on the open market as crude oil and lng. it's much more complicated than you seem to think. think about it. in order to get revenues of $377 billion in 2006, if it all came from retailing, they'd have to sell 125 billion gallons of gasoline, or more than the entire US demand in 2006.

and the number I cited came from the ChevronTexaco link at the top of your google page.

[TX-RAT]

26. Small correction.

(a bbl is 31 US gallons of petroleum).

That is incorrect. 1 barrel = 42 gallons.

[northzax]

27. right on, my mistake

thanks for the correction. makes the profit even smaller, per gallon, though, right?

[Leo 9]

28. Higher Oil Prices Help Exxon Again Set Record Profit

Higher Oil Prices Help Exxon Again Set Record Profit

By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 2, 2007; Page D01

It was a hard act to follow, but Exxon Mobil has managed quite an encore.

After ringing up the biggest annual profit figure in U.S. corporate history in 2005, Exxon Mobil yesterday announced that it topped that number in 2006. Riding the wave of high crude oil and gasoline prices, the company reported a profit of $39.5 billion, up 9 percent from the year before.



A worker delivers fuel to an Exxon station in Keller, Texas, Saturday, Jan. 27, 2007. Exxon Mobil Corp. on Thursday, Feb. 1, 2007 posted the largest annual profit by a U.S. company, $39.5 billion. The 2006 profit topped the previous record of $36.13 billion which Exxon set in 2005. (AP Photo/Donna McWilliam) (Donna Mcwilliam - AP)


Its revenue of $377.6 billion exceeded the gross domestic product of all but 25 countries.

snip

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/01/AR2007020100452.html

Thanks for the article.

True, it's not so easy a question to answer.

That's why I ask it.

[Blackhatjack]

30. When Oil Companies Like Exxon cannot hide $10bil profits in a quarter you know...

The profits are just pouring in faster than they can reinvest them or even make up enough reserve funds to put them in.

Before Bush, oil companies always carried profits as reserves or reinvested funds for oil exploration and contingent losses. They are still doing that today, but the money is pouring in so fast they cannot keep up.

If you looked at the gross sales receipts for oil production, refining and distribution ... you would be even more astonished.

[begin_within]

31. ALL of the money goes somewhere... none of the money goes in the ground, where the oil originated.

So in that sense at least, it's 100% profit.

[DU GrovelBot]

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34. ttt