That seems like an ideal situation. His side of the family are the uneducated, highly opinionated liberals ...'quit your job and go on government assistance'--to give you an example. I've never tried to change anyone's views or opinions, I merely state mine and welcome a challenge. My husband knows that I make educated arguments so he'll rarely make a statement that he cannot back up. This was one statement that he didn't think through, and may have been one of the most aggravating ones to date. Moreso that he was unable to make any coherent argument when I asked him questions. I will admit that I have little to no patience for ignorant comments, so biting my tongue in this situation was a challenge.

interesting to me the number of comments and no one addressed the obvious; I will reframe from publically expressing what I think and it has nothing to do with profit.

This is an open discussion, your feedback is welcome...

Tell your husband to go look at the financial report for the company in question. All the major oil companies are publicly held and their quarterly financial statements are available to anyone via a quick search. Have him go through them and look at the P&L statement, which shows the amount they put away into future development, their R&D costs, production costs, salary costs, benefits costs, etc. Then look up the amount of taxes they pay and compute that as a percent of income. Compare that to what you pay as a percent of income.

Most people who complain about the profits of others have no idea what they are talking about. They see only how someone else is getting ahead and not how they got there in the first place. It's nice to remind them every now and then ;)

Yes, "opposites attract"! LOL I am driven out of my mind by my alter ego wife who, like your mate who goes to the first obvious indicated citation for the pump price shock at the gas station. Never do they realize how much a single source energy product puts them at disadvantage to the provider. This is the ONLY evil of Capitalism and it is called CARTELIZATION. When the consumer has no place to vote with his feet, he is victim. This is why Obama wants single payer health insurance, why we have a central bank, why we have only three major American automobile manufactures, why we have mogul agriculture factory farms, wheat, corn, hogs, turkey, chicken, beef, lamb, and why there are only three major American airlines and ONE supposedly deregulated telephone company and prefer to use only Apple computers, Microsoft operating systems, and cell phone providers. It is my chief irritation in life that we consumers always choose cartelized interests, whether it be Socialism in government where few elites rule in the name of equality or where we consumers choose ONLY POPULAR brands and hence drive competition out. I am not saying this well because I am only a retired working stiff without PROPER CREDENTIALS and am breaking the accepted law of thinking without permission and worse writing without a license. I love living on the edge! I'm Dirty Little Johnnie and I reside with "The Fringe Opinion in The Wall" Gang. I believe in being as independent as a hog on ice.

And probably smarter.

A relatively inexpensive history of petroleum refining is on CD for $30 is available from the AIChE South Texas Section. It is briefly described in http://www.aiche.org/sites/default/files...

What is discouraging to me is that the Government will make far higher profit than the oil companies ($0.40 per gallon), yet people complain about the profits of the oil companies, but not the outrageous greed of the government. I think you should ask your husband about that.

Whenever I hear a company profit stated as a dollar amount rather than a percentage of sales or investment I know I'm being conned. Years ago the meda was fond of saying, "oil profits are up 100% this year." Yeah, they went from 3 or 4% of sales to 6 or 8% (I don't remember exactly). So we were being conned by the worst spin on the math.

I would ask your husband what the profits were as a percentage of cost at the gas pump and what the taxes from the Federal and State governments were as a percentage of cost at the pump. The criminals, in this case, and as usual, are politicians.

The history of the different methods of refining petroleum I think would be very interesting. As I understand it in the early days someone would patent a new method and then someone would come along with another new method and then another new method, etc.

Let's look at it philosophically. I presume that your husband has a job that pays him a salary, or that he gets paid for his work by some means. Surely, some of his salary is needed to pay the basic bills, like food and shelter. Some, goes for his savings or toys. So, from the point of view of those that don't have the savings or toys, his profits are excessive. Furthermore, since he makes ends meet, should he be offered a raise, you should point out to him that it is his moral duty to decline it since that would be an excessive profit. And if he really wants to be honest, perhaps that last steak that he had is an example of an excessive profit. It is all a matter of perspective and honesty.

Not at all. It really just comes down to supply and demand. Products that are in demand can make these types of profit. Please remember though that this is gross profit before any expenses are taken out. Besides, if someone (s) have invested money to start a business and hire people why should they NOT make a profit. Btw-your husband and you don't have to see eye to eye. Just know that you are better informed than he is Lol

The problem with oil companies is that the government is already interfering. I agree with you that government interference is not the answer but profits as a result of crony capitalism are also wrong. Free market capitalism is the answer but I doubt we will see that in the oil industry.

What is holding fuel cells back are a) their intolerance to sulfur in the feedstock fuel (which I and others improved on but didn't really solve back in the 2004-2007 era) and b) their ridiculously high capital costs of manufacturing (which no one has solved).

If the oil company is the one that I saw recently reported making $35 billion in a quarter, then that company made roughly 9% return on investment, and that was in a good quarter. Typical ROI's for oil companies is more like 6% over the long term. It was not that many years ago that people would have sneered negatively over having ONLY made 9%. Oil companies were out of favor for completely the opposite reason; they didn't make enough profit. Oil companies cannot win. I am teaching petroleum refining this summer for only the third time in 16 years. Why so infrequently you may ask? It is because oil refining just isn't that profitable compared to many endeavors that frankly require a lot more thought. The big picture problems in oil refining have been solved, and so most chemical engineers are on to more profitable endeavors.

A company earning $35B per quarter should be drawing competitors like flies. Increased competition will drive any excessive profit down towards what can be earned in other industries.

The problem is that there are way too many ways to keep competitors out:
- Government permissions required to operate
- License/permit costs that make building new plants uneconomical
- Overly-broad patents on things that aren't genuine inventions
- Regulations that require you to build a gigantic plant when you only need (and can only afford) a small one.
- Taxes on all producers in an industry that fund subsidies under various names to the large producers.
- The large producer can sue you indefinitely over minor matters (such as specious patent infringements) that you may end up winning, but doing so costs you legal fees and time.

So long as buying politicians is more profitable than investing in the stock market, this won't change.

Agreed. I would like to see more competition. Fuel Cell vehicles were supposed to be available years ago but something is holding them back. If we get more vehicles running on something other than gas then competition will fix most of the problems.

I can't argue with you there. I don't see there being much change in the oil industry as it is more political than anything else; I just don't believe that the government having more control over any industry leaders and their profits is ever the answer.