Quoting Bloomberg- The U.S. is the third largest producer of oil in the world. Oil companies, and refineries based in the U.S., continue to enjoy record profits....
V, if you are implying that there is a conspiracy, I think you are missing one very important factor. Oil companies have an inventory of oil from wells that were drilled over the years. Whether oil sells for $100 a barrel or $10 a barrel, that oil still costs the company the same amount to get out of the ground. When the price of crude goes up, the oil companies will make more money because their "inventory" did not go up in costs but went up in selling price.
No conspiracy in my words or thoughts; but, it seems commonplace notions of supply-demand being responsible for prices just don´t work when applied to oil companies which have, for a lot longer than I´ve been alive, been identified with corporate greed. No thoughts, apparently, of sharing the windfall you spoke of with a public that has no bargaining power in this equation.
I understand your point, but when any corporation that is publicly traded is acting, it has to be on behalf of their shareholders. Add to the equation that they are dealing with a finite quantity of product makes a willingness to share less likely. It would be like asking the UAW employee to work overtime for no pay for the good of America. On an alturistic level it may make sense but it just ain't gonna happen!
Here in Belgium we pay like 90 euro to fill up a tank (and this is for normal cars). So that is like 116 dollars. Damn those taxes.
The pressing (or depressing) issue is what happens when the oil dries up? With the exploration that's gone on up to now, it's unlikely that we'll discover any more major reserves ever again, so it is going to dry up eventually. Only so much fracking/oil sands production can bring. Prices are only ever going to go up, and demand is only ever going to increase.
a large part of oil pricing is straight up speculation. Otherwise Mobil wouldn't have made $16 BILLION in profit 1st QUARTER of 2012...
