RV Fuel Issues & Prices - Post 'Em Here!

[Dick_A]

All other fuel threads will be automatically deleted. 🙂

[mountainkowboy]

LindsayRichards wrote:

It really helps those 13 entities (mainly dictator run countries) that are bigger players than Exxon Mobile. For the life of me I can can not understand why you guys fall for the boggieman addenda of bashing the oil companies and not concerned at all about the governmental mandates preventing the US from getting our massive quantities of oil in our country and bringing down the world price. We have less than 5% of daily production and very little say in the cost of oil. Until you guys give up on the wrong problem and start lobbing for the real problem of prohibition of US oil production, we are domed to high oil prices and huge ($700 BILLION and millions of jobs) going every year to overseas interest. This is so simple to grasp, I so am tired of trying to get folks to see it. You have not even tried to dispute any facts, Just it's all the "Big Oil's" fault with not thought of the root causes. Why you are against American getting it's own natural resources is beyond reason. Let people who attack us get the money and the jobs. Why would anybody be for that strategy?

I totally agree, we have a HUGE reserve of oil in the USA.

[LindsayRichards]

It is simple, they were NOT losing money when the price of oil was $40. THAT IS A FACT. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that they are making a huge profit now that the price is double that...

I'm only taking about ONE PRODUCT, OIL...

Are you not aware that America buy over 60% of it's oil usage from oversea at the world price?

[AO_hitech]

It is simple, they were NOT losing money when the price of oil was $40. THAT IS A FACT. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that they are making a huge profit now that the price is double that...

I'm only taking about ONE PRODUCT, OIL...

[LindsayRichards]

I am talking about the percent of profit from selling OIL, NOT gasoline. AS you said, the cost of the two products is unrelated. They may only make 8% profit on GASOLINE, but they make WAY MORE on selling OIL.


The 8% (it varies from quarter to quarter and year to year) is for the company as a whole including all their business. Shell oil for example (Dutch) paid the US government 2.5 BILLION for leases off Alaska and spent and additional 2 BILLION exploring only to be told that they could not drill at all due to support ship emissions on native villages. The profit is figured on the bottom, bottom, bottom line in all businesses. Exon Mobile, the US's largest player in this world wide market is the 14th largest producer of oil in the world. They are a minor player in the oil extraction business.

[AO_hitech]

I am talking about the percent of profit from selling OIL, NOT gasoline. AS you said, the cost of the two products is unrelated. They may only make 8% profit on GASOLINE, but they make WAY MORE on selling OIL.

[LindsayRichards]

Makes no sense. You must not understand what profit is. It is the difference between sales price and all cost before taxes. If you make a gallon of paint for $10 and sell it for $12.50, you have made $2.50 or a 25% profit. If you make a gallon of paint for $20 and sell it for $25, then you have made $5 or a 25% profit on your investment of $20. The cost of the two products are unrelated. The cost of a gallon of gas is over 75% the price of oil. When oil was $35/bbl they made their 8% (exclusive of the gas station) was around $2.00. When the price of oil in $90/bbl and they sell it for $3.45/gal, they can still make their 8%. If you think it is a very high profit business, you should buy their stock as over 65,000,000 Americans have. If you are right, you can make a killing and retire. In actuality, oil stocks are pretty much middle of the road buy and hold stocks. Their main stock holders are retirement funds and money markets. The US has massive quantities of oil undeveloped for political reasons and if they were on the market the price of oil would come down and therefore the price of gasoline and all oil products.

[AO_hitech]

LindsayRichards wrote:
Oil companies make a profit of about 8% which is less than the fortune 500 average.

So, when gas was under $2 and oil was correspondingly low you are trying to convince is that they were loosing money!?! They are NOT making only 8% profit on the sale of OIL. NO WAY.

[mountainkowboy]

Costco $3.57 for regular, $3.87 for premium 2 days ago in socal. Of course the F350 like the premium fuel when under load so thats what it gets.

[cekkk]

I don't believe a boycott is a stupid idea. I also don't believe oil companies' margins are too high. But we are paying too much for oil products for obvious reasons. LindsayRichards says, be mad at the pols. I agree wholeheartedly. So call your senator and ask for an appointment to talk with him or her. Same with your rep. An aide will be happy to meet with you, but the "man" is tied up. Now, an Exxon exec' whose given thousands of dollars to that same rep/senator is being hounded by his stockholders because retail sales are off 5 or 6% due to a boycott calls that rep/senator and asks for a sitdown. Who do you think gets to see the dude or dudette? The oil companies have great political influence, and high oil prices are beneficial to their bottom line. But sales are king. If anyone or anything is capable of overcoming the Green Army's assault on our economy and the American people it's the vast resources of our major industries. But they need incentive. So, is a boycott a panacea? Probably not. But it would be a start. Is it a stupid idea? No more so than refusing to develop our resources for ourselves. But we must avoid unintended consequences. Were we to do that, where would the money come from for our Middle Eastern friends to fund their jihad against us? BTW, I filled the diesel tanks at $3.53 yesterday. Allahu Akbar!

[mountainkowboy]

He "SAID" the the price of REFINING THE OIL DOESNT CHANGE. Wether its $20 a barrel or $200 a barrel.....it will cost the same to refine it REGUARDLESS OF THE COST......IT IS A FIXED PRICE. And yes everyone who touches it get a piece of the action....DUH, that has never changed. But if you think for one minute that the price is high because of that your not very bright.....no offence.

So lets go with the FACT that the oil companies are making RECORD PROFITS EVERY QUARTER, in the billions......for years now and we just sit here and take it. We have more oil in the good ol USA than the whole middle east, but the tree huggers make it almost impossible to get out of the ground. Also if you think that a boycott would have no effect on them you must have slept through your economics classes in school. It seems to me that WE need to wake the h#ll up and take charge of our own destiny or you can just sit in the corner, like a whipped dog, and complain.
I for one DO NOT use any product produced by Exxon/Mobil and if even 1/2 of the american public did the same.......this thread would not exsist. Think what you want, but you are completly wrong and IMO I see that you are part of the problem.....no offence. 🙂

[Mike_and_Trish]

There are 42 gallons in a barrel of crude oil. If crude is at, say, $84 per barrel, that's $2 a gallon just for the crude oil feedstock. Add to that the cost of transporting crude to the refinery, running the refinery (even if you think the refineries have been "long since paid for", the people there don't work for free, plus the costs of electricity, catalysts, insurance, etc.), then transporting the products, then distribution and marketing, plus taxes ... and yes, whether we like it or not, profits -- for every company involved all the way from refinery to the corner gas station. That's why gasoline costs what it does.

[mountainkowboy]

I had a conversation with a friend of mine who owns several gas stations and this is his take.

"The price of refining fuel is fixed, the refineries have been long paid for and there costs really dont change with the price of crude. That being said as best as I can figure, regular gas should be around $1.31 a gallon at a decent profit margin for everyone. The blame rest on the general public, they continue to pay the insane prices that the oil companies put out there. If you buy it at that price there is no reason for them to lower it.

If the public would......say boycot Exxon/Mobil (the big one).....I mean DO NOT buy any of there products and fuel at all for however long it take to cripple them. You would see prices drop drastically to get money flowing back into the company. To be able to compete the rest would have to follow suit. The ability to control the market lies in the consumer, not the big companies. The public doesnt understand the power that they really have and cry to the government to fix an issue that they have soul control over."

I agree with him, we can break the oil companies hold if we could come together. As for that, we could change anything in the country if we did it as a unit. JMO

[cekkk]

Just heard on the news that 40% of East Coast gasoline is imported, so prices will spike because ships have been held out to sea.

[SRT]

LindsayRichards wrote:
Many East coast refineries are shutting down due to Hurricane, Expect price increases.

Gas prices go up here due to an east coast hurricane. That's funny, NOT.

[LindsayRichards]

Many East coast refineries are shutting down due to Hurricane, Expect price increases.