According to NPR, a mere tropical storm could shut down the gulf.

[Nemesis]

Almost none of the off-shore platforms in the Gulf are back online yet. The Gulf has not been rebuilt, so a single tropical storm, or even the possibility of one could completely shut down the Gulf Coast and all oil production because of the need to evacuate. This could spike oil prices to $89 a barrel, and the government has still refused to use emergency oil reserves. Meanwhile, companies like Exxon Mobile reported profits of $39 billion dollars last year alone.

What is happening?

[Fierys]

corruption, and money. I mean those guys who own exxon dont want to help the world, they want to sell oil. If they make profit increases, AND still help the world, then they will help out, atleast IMO.

[Nemesis]

corruption, and money. I mean those guys who own exxon dont want to help the world, they want to sell oil. If they can help the world, but still make profit increases, then they will help the world.
You mean if helping the world will increase their profits, they'll help the world. They won't help the world in spite of it.

[nyx]

Now that's just selfish!

[PiccoloNamek]

Since when was it their job to help the world?


$39 billion dollars last year alone.

But how much money did they have to spend to MAKE that profit? What was their profit margin? I mean, if you make a billion dollars but you had to spend $900,000,000 to get it, then that's not very much at all.

[Arcades]

100 million isnt much money? where do you come from?

[PiccoloNamek]

That was just an example that I pulled out of nowhere. It could have been any number.

I wonder, what was Exxon's net profit for last year?

[geniusndisguise]

Exxon's net profit margin for 2005 was 9.7%

Intel's was 22.4%
Yahoo's was 34%
The S&P 500 was 8.2% for 2005

Exxon is doing moderately well as a business. Don't let the large numbers fool you.

[Arcades]

the profit margin was 9.7% but 9.7% of how much money? 50% net of 10,000 isnt nearly as good as 1% of 46 billion. Thay move insain amounts of product.

[geniusndisguise]

the profit margin was 9.7% but 9.7% of how much money? 50% net of 10,000 isnt nearly as good as 1% of 46 billion. Thay move insain amounts of product.
That's not how business works. If you had a business making a 50% net profit then, yes you are doing extraordinarily well.

How do you decide what is too much money? What should they do with it? Is it really good business sense to lower prices just because some people think they are making too much money even though their profit margins don't reflect that? Doing so would affect their stock. If it was a common practice it would affect the stock market, which would affect the economy. We'd lose jobs. You wouldn't be able to buy the cheap gas anyway because you'd be unemployed. Healthy businesses are better for all of us.

[Birdsnest]

You should see how precarious it all is, I mean there are oil refineries out there that are decrepid, and ready to fall even with a slight wind. Its not very well thought out.

[Arcades]

Im missing sompthing here. You stated that exxon's profit was slightly higher than the s&p. But far below that of intels. I replied with (though maby in a bad way) that exxon most like moves much much more product than intel can ever hope for. I was not saying anything about there busness practises just stating that at 9.7% they most probebly eclipse intells net.

Also if our market stability rests on the reliability of the price of barrels of oil never goin down then were screwd anyway. If anyone doubts the oil companys who didnt have a huge investment in the gulf didnt become estatic with thoughts of profits when the gulf went down, they are fooling themselves.

[geniusndisguise]

Im missing sompthing here. You stated that exxon's profit was slightly higher than the s&p. But far below that of intels. I replied with (though maby in a bad way) that exxon most like moves much much more product than intel can ever hope for. I was not saying anything about there busness practises just stating that at 9.7% they most probebly eclipse intells net.
Oh, I see. Still my answer remains, though, because my point is that the actual dollar amount is not the important number. Yes, Exxon moves way more product than Intel, but Intel is still doing better.


Also if our market stability rests on the reliability of the price of barrels of oil never goin down then were screwd anyway.
That's not what I said at all. I just said that we can't have businesses worried about making "too much money" because that would be bad for the economy.

If anyone doubts the oil companys who didnt have a huge investment in the gulf didnt become estatic with thoughts of profits when the gulf went down, they are fooling themselves.
Of course, they were probably all :banana:
Wouldn't you be?

[Purple-Silver Fox]

You should see how precarious it all is, I mean there are oil refineries out there that are decrepid, and ready to fall even with a slight wind. Its not very well thought out.
Yes, many of those fields are depleted for the largest part. And when the rigs are destroyed, it just costs too much to reinstall them. So any destroyed capacity will be gone. Not to mention the shortage of oil-related personnel and materials.

[Jacque]

I wouldn't tap into too much of the oil industry spin.

Tyson Slocum, who heads the energy program at Public Citizen, a Washington advocacy group, said the oil industry is attempting to mislead when it stresses relatively mediocre profits as a percentage of sales to everyone but its financial peers.

"They say one thing to the public but they have a whole other line for shareholders and investors," Slocum said. "The industry can't have it both ways. If they think that return on capital employed is the best way to measure their performance, then that's the measurement we should use.

"It's completely disingenuous for them to tell Wall Street how great they're doing and then use a different measurement to tell the general public, 'Woe is us.' "

I asked representatives of Exxon and Chevron for information about their profit margins. Both e-mailed figures, sourced to the American Petroleum Institute, showing that oil companies earn less as a percentage of total sales than banks, drug companies and softwaremakers.

In its statement last week, the institute explained that the oil industry uses profits as a percentage of sales when dealing with the public "because that is a figure that is the most widely understood and relevant to consumers."

(http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/05/10/BUGLTIOM771.DTL&type=business)

[sbw]

What is happening?

exponential increase in global demand.

Scott