Based upon a $3.00 gallon of gasoline, the average break-down is as follows.What does this tell you? Well first stop yelling at your gas station attendant. He ain't making any money selling you gas. That's why the sodas and cigarettes cost so much in the first place.
Gasoline Retailer $.01 per gallon Oil Company $.08 per gallon Refining $.29 per gallon Marketing/Distribution $.32 per gallon Taxes $.59 per gallon Cost of Crude (delivered) $1.71 per gallon
Secondly, most if not all of the money is made before the oil ever gets to these shores. High global crude prices benefit the oil producers not the oil consumers and that is true even among corporations. Our lack of new refinery capacity isn't just because of environmental policies that hamstring refiners. It is also because there isn't much money in refining.
Lastly, a lot of people are using numbers like these to say that oil companies don't make any money. It's not exactly true. Stateside they're only making 8 cents per gallon, but the oil companies are also making some money pulling the crude out of the ground in foriegn lands. Since the expense of extracting crude from the ground doesn't change much, you can bet they're making a good living over there. That money they make needs to be balanced with expenses like exploration for new drilling of course.
That price data is good, but incomplete. You need to look at the whole price chain from when the oil comes out of the ground to when it gets burned in your car. Just looking at the prices stateside doesn't mean you aren't getting screwed by a faceless corporation (or that you are).
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