House OKs bill to curb gas gouging

The Washington Times ^ | May 24, 2007 | Patrice Hill

[never4get]

Grease....oh, they are drunk on the Kool Aide....Milk, cookies and a pat on the head for everyone!!!!

[cweese]

That would be an excellent place to start! Building more refineries as well as exploring for and exploiting new reserves would be a sensible next step.

[Rodney King]

If there is gouging, how come margins on gasoline retailing are so low? The margins are lower than walmart makes.. is walmart gouging? The margins are lower than Honda makes. Is Honda gouging?

[thackney]

the important numbers are PROFIT, and INVESTMENT

I am discussing profit. When you look at ROI, make sure you look at a time span like a decade. 1998~99 was not that long ago. You don't get return on those investments for a long time in this industry.

[corlorde]

No doubt about it. We have the ability to be almost completely energy independent while we develop other energy ideas. Drill, build nuclear facilities, refineries etc but we are handcuffed by our own stifling policies. That’s where big government should start...by looking in the mirror.

[Rodney King]

Looking at Exxon as a whole isn't even all that revealing. From the ground to your gas tank, there are essentially three stages:

Upstream, which is exploring, finding, and drilling for oil

Midstream, which is refining and pipelines

Downstream, which is actually branding and selling the gas at the station.

Exxon does all three. There has been big money in Upstream for the last 6 or 7 years. To look at whether or not there is gouging, you would want to look at downstream profits. They are just not very high. Gasoline marketing is in fact a very very competitive business.

[never4get]

“That’s where big government should start”

...why should they, that would only mean that there dividends would shrink?

[Piquaboy]

It takes quite a lot of time to build new refinery’s and even then you have to get the wacko enviromentalist permission to do so.

[thackney]

Exxon does all three but buys more oil on the market than they produce themselves.

Valero would be a review of refining and Marketing.

Anadarko is one of the biggest US companies that are basically a domestic crude oil producer.

[greasepaint]

to post 66

for whatever reasons, refineries ane not producing.

I don’t begrudge a company, 10% return-on-investment.
I don’t begrudge, a gas station making a 5c markup.

[Teacher317]

"Gouging" does not mean a new record-high price has been hit. (Otherwise, the price of every new model year of your favorite vehicle would be "gouging".)

"Gouging" is when a short-term crisis leads to overwhelming price increases (usually 10-100 times the value the week before), and that price increase will be reversed when the crisis disappears. It's when flashlights go for $50, batteries for $20, potable water goes for $25 per gallon, and bread is $15 per loaf when a category-5 hurricane is coming to town, or a snowstorm will put your county out of contact with the rest of the world for 2 weeks. It's not when a common commodity has a price that politicians can exploit for their own personal gain. (That's called a "weekday".)

[cbkaty]

PLEASE tell me the return-on-investment.

That's not what your buddies in the MSM are bellowing daily...they are using only the dollar amount of profit...which anyone with even a small brain should understand the more raw dollar revenue the more raw dollar profit.

[Teacher317]

Cool graphic! Anyone got the 2007 breakdown?

[thackney]

Updated and displayed at:

Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/gdu/gasdiesel.asp

Gasoline Components Monthly History
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/gdu/gaspump.html

[kellynla]

you’re reeeel big with, “thank you’s”, “excuse me’s & my mistake’s” aren’t you...

your rudeness is matched only by your potty mouth & ignorance of the subject at hand...

do us all a favor and GET LOST and leave us all alone ‘til you learn some manners, Mr/Ms WTF “Effin!”...
and PLEASE wash your mouth out b4 you come back.

[SAJ]

The Regress is the lesser villain (for once). The Federal Motor Fuel excise tax is just 18.4 cents/gallon. Most states tax gasoline more than that, with NY and HI taxing at 42 cents/gallon. Only 13 or 14 states tax gasoline at a lower rate than the Feds.

[IamConservative]

The restrictions to build refineries leaves us with very little spare capacity so upsets have greater impact.

What is your take on the restrictions to build refineries? EPA? If that is so, why wouldn't Exxon build a refinery across the border from Brownsville, TX and truck gas across the border? Barring reason unknown to me for not taking this step, it seems Exxon is artificially restricting supply to increase prices.

BTW, I own 2,000 shares of Exxon stock which I purchased a little over 3 years ago for under $40/share.

[greasepaint]

please tell me what the ROI is.

[greasepaint]

Exxon’s money would be stolen.

[thackney]

-—What is your take on the restrictions to build refineries? EPA?-—

An example:

Arizona refinery permit took seven years, Senate told
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/business/19103.php

Environmentatilsts, NIMBYs, liberal courts and weak-kneed legilatures that enable them are hold this country back.

-—If that is so, why wouldn’t Exxon build a refinery across the border from Brownsville, TX and truck gas across the border?——

PEMEX, the Mexican National oil company does not allow foreign investment in their industry.

Oil companies are expanding and upgrading the existing refineries in this country, where they can. Sometimes those expansions are as big as a new refinery. They are also building complete new refineries in other contries.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117789455598286509.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

http://www.motivaenterprises.com/images/editor/ExpansionUpdatePressRelease.doc

http://www.panews.com/local/local_story_120184906.html

http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/122840.html

http://www.gulflive.com/news/mississippipress/index.ssf?/base/news/117645937628530.xml

http://www.turnto23.com/news/12468302/detail.html

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/business/19103.php

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=18c2e535-e1b1-41d7-896f-9041bd59a7ca&&Headline=New+refinery+at+Jamnagar+6+months+early

http://in.today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=businessNews&storyID=2007-04-16T131854Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-294373-2.xml