Here is one reason we have high gas prices.

Oil companies can make goop gobs of money and not hurt Americans at the same time

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https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/may/16/house-democrats-pump-brakes-gas-price-gouging-bill/

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For gas and all inflation right now.

Hurting Democrats politically is just a side benefit for them.

https://ycharts.com/companies/BP/net_income

I mean, how fact free are these criticisms that you see bandied about.

BTW, the reason they lost so much in q1 is the same reason prices are so high: Russia's war of conquest in Ukraine.

Exxon Mobil reports a $8.9 billion fourth-quarter profit as oil prices soar.
The oil and gas giant said it would resume its stock buyback program by repurchasing $10 billion in shares over the next two years.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/03/bp-earnings-q1-2022.html

Now they are doing it to Biden.

artificially increasing inflation and interest rates.

But the Republicans conspiring with Iran to not free the American Hostages until after the election was the main thing.....
HWBush/Cheney/Rumsfeld "appointed" Reagan president.........

Jimmy Carter is one of the finest human beings that ever walked the earth...........The exact opposite of Reagan, HWBush, Cheney and Rumsfeld........

Gas is trading over $110/barrel.

Here's another:

There's a war going on that has constrained the global supply.

Crude oil is sold by the barrel. It's$109/bbl today, down around 3% from yesterday.
Unleaded gas on the commodities market is sold by the gallon. It's around $3.70 today.
Neither price is justified by the misadventure in Ukraine. It's an excuse by traders to prop up prices to cover their overreaction in futures to that attack.
The supply was never at risk, but they acted like 50% of world supply was going away in a week.

I don't see much ire being aimed at them, though it seems appropriate.

The continued high prices when it's obvious that the Ukraine situation is not having a major impact on supply is clearly price manipulation to hold off losses from overly expensive futures bought in March & April.
Repeating myself from a post below:
Russia is about 12% of world supply. Embargo efforts affect 25-30% of that, so a bit over 3% of world supply.
Of the countries pumping the other 88%, not one is producing over 80% of capacity.
The supply of crude was never in jeopardy. The only change would have been geography, the whole time, unless ALL of Russia's exports were blocked.
It's easier to direct ire at oil companies because their financials are public information with every 10q filing.

nt

I can make things out of clay, or lay by the bay, I just may! What do you say?

It's "the reason."

We agree on a lot brother, but not this.
Oil pumpers & refiners don't set prices, traders do.
Clearly, those companies are not motivated to aggressively address it, because they are the fortunate beneficiaries of an overreacting market.
On the refining side, there's almost nothing they can do.
In crude production, they could increase supply, but where would it go? There's no dearth of supply. There was never going to be.
Right now, any embargo on Russian oil is affecting under 4 million bbl/day. Russia is about 12% of world supply, but the producers of the other 88% are operating at 80% of capacity or less.
If it's greed anywhere at this point l, it is traders propping up current & future prices to avoid getting killed on their grossly overbid futures from 4-8 weeks ago.
BP & other refiners are just lucky beneficiaries of a market gone wildly out of control.

I tend to lump them together.

I know next to nothing about this stuff, and I imagine that's true for many of us. It's far too easy to jump to conclusions when you don't have all the facts. Thanks for

Please consider doing an o.p. about this, if you haven't already. It's very important information, and the more people see and read it, the better!

I've been attacked for pointing this out, because getting angry at a thousand faceless commodities gamblers is much harder than at a few big companies.
The FTC simply doesn't have the resources to pursue mass price manipulation, no matter how obvious.
They get away with it because they know there's nobody to stop them.
Free markets, something, something, makes it all ok i guess.

in my lifetime, but we've never paid close to $5 per gallon before.

I live in western New York and we've never paid over $4.00 per gallon in my lifetime, until now. That includes times when oil was trading at over $150 barrel. We've never hit that $4.00 barrier before.

Of course that's not adjusted for inflation, but who's causing the inflation?

Speculators are running amok.
The ratio of wholesale gas per gallon to crude per barrel is unprecedented.
But, oil companies just sell at what the market pays.
There is an agreed upon floor, based on crude price, (kind of rigged to ensure positive margjns).
Is there profiteering? Probably so. But, i think the blame lies with price fixing speculators, not the refiners who don't really set the wholesale price.
The company i worked for had one product that was market commoditized. It was the one product where price was not negotiated.
Fortunately, 70% of supply was integrated vertically for a value added product line, so the margin risk only applied to 30% of volume.
A rough market year was the difference between that division having a great year or a weak year.
My pushback is that i repeatedly see the refiners being castigated for greed, when they are merely fortunate sons.
The greed accusation needs to be targeted elsewhere.

.. this price we know damn well its net profit ***MARGINS***

Also, Big Oil has their own traders who keep trading up oil

they absolutely feel entitled to limit supply to keep prices high knowing people will pay it. Increasing supply would involve investments in more drilling. They don't want to pay it when they can just rake in profits without it.

I cost me 33 fillups in my car, but I'm happy.

We really need some economic education around here.

BP’s profits have exactly 0 to do with the price of gas in oil. They are propers increased because wells that were losing money or were marginally profitable are now highly profitable.

They are selling into a global market. Their market share is tiny compared to the size of the market and have almost no ability to affect its price. So complain about profits and low tax rates on corporations, but don’t confuse it with how the market works.

Some Wells are profitable at $20 per barrel, some at 40 some at 70. When the market sets the price at over $100, all the wells are profitable and some are wildly profitable.

This is an oversimplification, of course. But it is basically what is going on.

They have no duty to Americans. They are a British company. Plus, like all corporations, their duties to their shareholders and that duty is to maximize profit.

What we need far fewer tax breaks for corporations.

refinery maintenance shutdowns and switchover to summer gas formula. Prior to the pandemic, gas prices almost always went up around this time of the year. Now the same dynamic is back except the floor for gas prices was much higher due to the wild oil speculation when Russia invaded Ukraine.

Then food.

War + climate change.

The first rationing scheme for fuel isn’t working…price.

Instead of coupons this time, you will get a card that will limit what you dispense from the pumps and it will keep track of it.

Of course, that was 2 years ago and we were responsible for storage costs and insurance +++

How things change.