kiowamohican:
You're welcome!
Everyone needs to realize that without profits, there will be no, or limited, exploration and development of oil resources. It is the profits and corresponding cash flow that make capital projects possible.

Robo:

THANK YOU!!..
At least SOMEONE knows how to read a financial balance sheet. I love the baseless claims that "oil companies make 100% profits"...HUH..Look at the SEC statement. They are all publicly traded companies, and all the financials are fully disclosed. You can go to Google Google, or Yahoo finance...Pull up ticker symbol "XOM" for exxon mobile...Pretty basic stuff people..Net profit margin for the last quarter was 10.0%, for the year 10.4%...If you think they are making such east and huge profits..Gee, here's an idea....BUY stock in them! Or buy call options on oil futures. Does not take a rocket scientist to take part in the "big evil oil" fortunes. They are all tr publicly traded companies that you can own part of, or buy calls on (or puts if you think the price will go down). Of course the whining socialist never think that way. It's all about evil capitalist making money, and you getting screwed. Go back to the 70's and big oil (and investors in it) were loosing their shirts. Now when someone makes money in business it's a bad thing...PLEASE!

The article left something out ..........
What was crude selling at the last time gas was 3.41????????????????????

When are we all going to wake up? Believe me, I like blaming Bush for almost anything (wink), but oil prices are rocketing because of demand. Supply hasn't really change all that much in the last 5 years. And face it, as long as the American consumer bears the cost and keeps driving like madmen, supply will continue to drop, and demand will still be increasing. The weak dollar is just a small role in the overall cost of a barrel of oil. Instead of $98 we pay $109, not that big of deal when your dealing in the volume that oil plays. If we want our price of gas to come down, we must increase supply! But everyone says, "Not in my back yard!" when it comes to ANWAR, or our shore lines. We don't have a problem with more drilling anywhere else, as long as it doesn't affect our scenery. So, the question is, do we bear the brunt of the oil prices? Or do we increase supply to drive down overall prices? Or maybe do we drive less? (GASP!) We the consumer haven't changes our ways to force supply to increase, in fact, as a country we are consuming more and more every year, couple that with skyrocketing demand in Asia. The post about the profit margins are true, Big Oil hasn't increased their profit margins in 8 years I believe. And anyways, who are we to decide on what someone sells their product for? If you think markup of 8% is bad, ask someone who works in a grocery store what their mark up is...on average about 30%. I don't see any posts of people mad at grocery store owners for getting rich off of selling something we need. Mark-up and profit is what drives capitalism, and we need it to keep everyone employed. For all the Big Oil has invested, and 8% return isn't really all that great.

form neal bortz' blog -- april 2 post...

"Let's say you sell widgets. It costs you 92 cents to make a widget, and you sell the widget for a dollar. You make eight cents on the sale of that widget. Your profit is eight cents – your profit margin is 8%. Now, let's say that your cost of business, comprised mostly of raw materials, goes up. Now it costs you $1.84 to make a widget. You respond by raising the price of your widgets by a dollar. They now cost $2.00 each. Subtract your cost of doing business ($1.84) from sales revenues for one widget ($2.00) and you have a profit of 16 cents. Wow! Your profit has doubled! But wait! What is your profit margin? How much is your company making for every widget it sells? Nothing has changed. Your profit margin is still 8%. Profits have doubled .. the profit margin has remained the same. The only reason the profits doubled is that the price of your raw materials has gone up. Has anyone looked at the price of crude oil lately?

Last year the big five oil companies made around $123 billion in profits. Pretty strong. But what was their profit margin? Around 9%. Same as the year before and the year before that. The politicians can't pander to the dumb masses by slamming profit margins ... so they play the dishonest game of slamming the gross profits, and the media lets them skate. They start talking about "windfall" profits. Tell me ... how is it a windfall profit when the profit margin is remaining effectively the same? Some windfall."

bmauerman1232--I don't know where you're getting your information from. The oil industry as a whole makes a profit margin (operating revenues divided by operating profits) of about 8%. Exxonmobil had a 10% profit margin for 2007 which was down from 10.5% in 2006. Many industries make a higher profit than the oil industry.

Thekid3477: Can't help but love you.

you made me lol sarahB. ive commented on a few topics other than my weed:) i can usually just find a way to bring any topic around to my weed. and as for gas prices i could have gone off on how we are the only industialized nation that does not permit industrialized hemp production. industialized hemp will generate more headaches than buzzes. uncle sam says they cant ok industrialized hemp because it would confuse people and send the wrong message. the reality of industialized hemp is that you could a) use it as a biomass intead of corn. IT TAKES NO FERTILIZER TO GROW AND GROWS IN ANY CLIMATE. we could grow our corn crops for food and THEN farmers could grow the hemp for fuel. hemp helps prevent erosion and LEAVES THE SOIL IN BETTER CONDITION THAN BEFORE IT WAS PLANTED. http://www.sdearthtimes.com/et0199/et019...
and 2) im not big into the whole global warming thing, it may be happening it may not be, theres evidence on both sides, but one of the other things about industrialized hemp is that it takes 4 acres of trees to equal the output of one acre of hemp over a 20 year span!! so think about it, even if you dont believe in global warming...WE...COULD..NEVER...CUT..DOWN.
...ANOTHER....TREEE. that cant be bad. did you know thomas jefferson wrote the original draft of the declaration of independance and the constitution on hemp paper. george washington and thomas jefferson both grew hemp. http://www.naihc.org/hemp_information/he...
the first laws in this country were laws REQUIRING you to grow hemp. so sarahB, i could have tied a few points about uncle sams hypocrisy and OUR general ignorance when it comes to hemp to the high gas prices, but i chose to just stick to the topic at hand:)

I am totally amazed that no one has mentioned the fact that the big oil companies are making 100% PROFITS with these high gas prices. They say they need that extra money to develop more resources?? Seems to me development costs have a separate budget from the profits--profits are what is left AFTER everything else is budgeted.

Drilling for our own oil is a good start, but it still will never address the problem. For one, the not all oil is the same. The "light sweet crude" that you find in the middle east, literally comes out of the ground gushing, and the reserves are MASSIVE. If you ever get a chance to see the gwatar oil field in Saudi Arabia, it will blow your mind. Many of the oil fields you find in Alaska, Canada, Russia, ext are not the light sweet crude that you find so abundant in the middle east. Drilling for heavier oil (and even oil shale is now becoming an option) takes much bigger resources to find and drill for, and requires much more refining. All that obviously will drive up the cost....
I also agree that the fall of the dollar is not the only problem, all though it is the biggest. The 2nd largest is your massive demand increase of oil in developing nations like: China, India, and many African countries...Speculators on the Mecr obviously can also contribute some; as is the case with any free traded market...
I really think anyone who does not believe that we are on the verge of a MAJOR energy crisis is blind to the obvious. Demand for oil just keeps going up; as the 3rd world develops, and oil is a LIMITED resource. Many top oil analysts have all ready commented that major reserves like gwtar are starting to go dry......
It took hundreds of million of years to create the oil, and yet it will all be used up in the very near future the way we are going through it. When oil gets to insane prices, perhaps then we will seriously look into alternative energy sources.

as gas prices continue to rise, frank busalacchi, gov. doyle's secretary of wi dept of transportation, is out in washington dc testifying in favor of a .25 to .40 cent gas tax increase.
"Raising taxes is never an easy decision. For the good of the country, we have to make this investment.
- Transportation Secretary Frank Busalacchi, a member of the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, testifying before a House Appropriations subcommittee. Busalacchi pitched the commission’s plan to gradually raise the federal gas tax by 25 cents to 40 cents a gallon. Busalacchi argued, “Our (national) infrastructure is in terrible condition. We're dealing with it every day in Wisconsin.”
God Bless our Governor.
And I thought it was all GW's fault.

I'm not sure how to comment here; I'm still blown away by "thekid3477" posting about a topic other than his weed! Okay, I will try to comment anyway. I think it's time they allow non-motorized forms of transportation on the Interstate system.

There are many reasons why gas (and oil) are priced so high. The low value of the U.S. dollar is just one reason. Also thank congress for not allowing new offshore oil drilling or drilling in ANWAR; for creating overly stringent regulations on building new refineries; and creating misguided reformulated gas and ethanol mandates. Also thank our state legislators for one of the higher gas taxes compared to other states along with the fact that gas taxes designated for highway maintenance and construction are being illegally diverted by Governor Doyle to "balance" Wisconsin's dysfuntional budget. Market speculators also play a part in this.

why dont we tap into our own resources? there is major oil fields untapped in the gulf and in alaska. but the tree huggers wont let it happen.

Start drilling in ANWAR.

Most don't have a clue how economics work..The biggest reason for the increase in oil is due to the weak US dollar. How hard is this to understand?? Take an economics 101 class someday and quit reading all the political rhetoric/talking points, and maybe then some will have a clue.
Oil is denominated off US dollars folks. Take a look at a chart of the US dollar vs ANY major world currency (the Euro, Yen, pound, gold bullion, ext). The dollar has been in plummet. Is it any wonder why oil is going up then?? If you denominate the price of oil off any other currency, the price has went up very little, if any.
Perhaps if we did not have this reckless policy by the FOMC of non stop rate cuts, and the morons in DC (both parties)spending out of control, creating MASSIVE deficits every year, our dollar would not be so weak...All you Bush haters can keep believing it's Bush setting the price and making all his oil buddies rich. Then when Obama wins in November, and oil hits $200 a barrel shortly there after, and makes gas surpass $6.00 a gallon, what are you all going to say then?? NO DOUBT you'll STILL be blaming it on Bush!

I want to apologize in advance to all the campgrounds, restaurants, tourist sites, state parks and other attractions in Wisconsin. With gas prices at the current level, we can't afford to come for a visit.

It isn't a shortage of oil thats the problem. Our currency devaluation is where the problem lies. Oil prices have decoupled from the supply/demand equation and are responding to investment speculators.

When was the last time something you bought increased in price simply because of the "fear" of something happening to the supply? That is one of THE MAIN causes of the increases in oil and gas.

Ummmmmm...NEWSFLASH! the whole system is corrupt. Big business is calling the shots not our "For the people, by the people" government. Money talks and makes policy. Our VP summed it up when asked about the 70% disapproval rating by the "People" in regards to the war. His response was "So?"

Enron...Google it and study deregulation and how it directly impacted energy prices if you really want to feel like a meat puppet.
I'm not a Bush Backer, but I don't think he created the initial problem. Enron Lobbyists paid off the Clintons to approve deregulation in 1999.

oil was under $25/barrel on 9/11. it was $40/barrel in '03 when HE started this war. now its well over $100 an not comin back. im suppose to believe this war wasnt about oil?? how much moola do you think HIS family is making off this crap.....

we had to make the trip to kenosha this weekend then from there to milwaukee and on the way i saw a gas station with regular unleaded for $3.51 a gallon. so beware it is coming.

Gas in Beloit was $3.43 today. Gas keeps going up but our pay doesnt. No cost of living raises either. You have to work to live yet you can hardly afford to go to work with the cost of gas and groceries. Gee do you think we can all get Public Aid, since it is so big on helping those in need.....

It our Fed chairman had half a brain, He would be raising interest rates to help kill inflation and (overtime) make the dollar stronger. Granted it would hurt economy's growth a bit. Unfortunately we are in a election year which changes everything.

Where’s old Alan Greenspan when we need him most?

Lets all thank the current administation for this mess,credit due and deserved!!

What if hurricanes knock-down our refineries in the gulf? What if China doubles their oil imports to make all the crap that the US once made? What if Venezuela keeps increasing their oil exports to Europe?
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If only the last 2 wars were truly a "war over oil" then maybe the US would have more of it, and less pain at the pumps and grocery check-outs.