Would you vote for a president that said they would fix gas prices?

[oscardeuce]

"The fastest path to getting oil prices down is to increase domestic production, and decrease our dependence on foreign, pricey, cartel controlled oil."
Why is it no one else seems to get this?
Thank God China is drilling right off our coast, when our EPA ( Empire Protection Agency) prevents us.

 

[mfp1016]

Originally Posted by renogaw
http:///forum/post/2515815
hmm:
that doesn't say revenue, that says profit...which means after all their repairs, payments, expenses...etc
No, it doesn't include optimization, which is a main culprit in eating the money, as is exploration, and construction. When doing the economics of a plant, the only items that are divided into the "repair" category are those that are mandated due to health/safety or environmental concerns. This does not include the $10 million required just to replace the boiler feed water for a small section of one plant or the $25 million to replace corroded piping. I really think a lot of people really have no idea how much chemical plants cost. That $10 billion/quarter is about the final cost for just one plant to be built.
Having actually been one of the "big oil cronies" you guys think makes millions of dollars, I assure this is not the case. But think whatever you would like...
I would like to thank both Ophiura, and SCSInet for actually understanding the reality of the situation. I especially liked the fact that you termed it "cartel controlled." That is a very apt description of our foreign oil. You both wrote very good, well informed opinions about what is going. And I don't think either of you actually work in the oil industry; this gives me hope.

 

[ophiura]

From an environmental perspective, I can also say I would MUCH rather have an oil well in the neighborhood than a nickel mine (or other metal used in hybrid/electric car batteries). Sometimes we have to be careful what we wish for...nothing made me more depressed than to see the beautiful landscape of West Texas marked with wind turbines. There were oil wells there too, with far lower profile. Everything has its price. You as a consumer have some choice in what you select, but I do encourage you to look into it a bit deeper than the surface or media reports. Part of the goal is to get you aggitated...that is what many news outlets want. And it works.

 

[mfp1016]

Originally Posted by oscardeuce
http:///forum/post/2516012
"The fastest path to getting oil prices down is to increase domestic production, and decrease our dependence on foreign, pricey, cartel controlled oil."
Why is it no one else seems to get this?
Thank God China is drilling right off our coast, when our EPA ( Empire Protection Agency) prevents us.
Whats sad is that China and Indonesia are extracting oil and N.G. all over the world and selling it to us at an increased price, rather than just extracting it ourselves.

 

[darthtang aw]

Ok, lets break this down simply.
Exxon is on pace to reach 96 billion dollars total NET. If the first quarter they made a proffit of almost 10 billion this translate into a 40 billion dollar proffit.
There are almost 300 million people in the U.S. That means each person in the U.S. had to buy almost 360 dollars worth of gas from Exxon this year. That means each person gave a 160 dollar profit to exon. This translates to the equivalent of roughly 50 gallons, means the average vehicle filled up 4 times this year.
Once it is broken down you will see right now exxon basically gets a 40% mark up on a gallon of gas from the start to the finish...which is on par with every other product sold in the U.S. The reason it is an issue is before the demand was so low and the supply so high they couldn't get this kind of profit, now that they can (just like every other product in the U.S.) people are complaining.
You pay 1.07 roughly for a McDonalds Double cheeseburger. McDonalds cost for the cheeseburger is roughly 58 cents. This includes labor and cost of goods. Yet no one complains about the huge profit McDonalds makes. Oh yeah, because no one eats 17 double cheeseburgers each week

 

[mfp1016]

Originally Posted by ophiura
http:///forum/post/2516043
From an environmental perspective, I can also say I would MUCH rather have an oil well in the neighborhood than a nickel mine (or other metal used in hybrid/electric car batteries). Sometimes we have to be careful what we wish for...nothing made me more depressed than to see the beautiful landscape of West Texas marked with wind turbines. There were oil wells there two, with far lower profile. Everything has its price. You as a consumer have some choice in what you select, but I do encourage you to look into it a bit deeper than the surface or media reports. Part of the goal is to get you aggitated...that is what many news outlets want. And it works.
Again thank you.
The best way to think of crude oil is as a muffin-gift-basket filled with all kinds of hydrocarbons, so many that it usually isn't even worth analyzing the composition of, a pretty strange practice compared to most other chemical plants. That said, crude oil is great because we are starting at the top with a basket full of potential energy, I consider it God's gift to chemical engineers. There is no other source in the world that is like that. ANY OTHER burnable fuel requires the addition of energy no matter how you want to slice it.
The battery is a good example. The battery acid inside it is synthesized through some snappy organic chemistry, this requires breaking and forming all kinds of chemical bonds. With crude oil, we are simply untangling the spaghetti string mess.

 

[mfp1016]

Originally Posted by Darthtang AW
http:///forum/post/2516055
Ok, lets break this down simply.
Exxon is on pace to reach 96 billion dollars total NET. If the first quarter they made a proffit of almost 10 billion this translate into a 40 billion dollar proffit.
There are almost 300 million people in the U.S. That means each person in the U.S. had to buy almost 360 dollars worth of gas from Exxon this year. That means each person gave a 160 dollar profit to exon. This translates to the equivalent of roughly 50 gallons, means the average vehicle filled up 4 times this year.
Once it is broken down you will see right now exxon basically gets a 40% mark up on a gallon of gas from the start to the finish...which is on par with every other product sold in the U.S. The reason it is an issue is before the demand was so low and the supply so high they couldn't get this kind of profit, now that they can (just like every other product in the U.S.) people are complaining.
You pay 1.07 roughly for a McDonalds Double cheeseburger. McDonalds cost for the cheeseburger is roughly 58 cents. This includes labor and cost of goods. Yet no one complains about the huge profit McDonalds makes. Oh yeah, because no one eats 17 double cheeseburgers each week
To further your point, I would like to add that cheeseburgers have reached a pinnacle in technology, theres no need to reinvest, so pure profit. Oil companies have to change and develop new technology, this isn't free.

 

[threed240]

Originally Posted by oscardeuce
http:///forum/post/2516012
"The fastest path to getting oil prices down is to increase domestic production, and decrease our dependence on foreign, pricey, cartel controlled oil."
Why is it no one else seems to get this?
This is actually what I ment by the poll. Our dependance on foreign oil drives our prices thru the roof when anything happens overseas. Our gov can control some of this.

 

[shogun323]

Originally Posted by mfp1016
http:///forum/post/2516045
Whats sad is that China and Indonesia are extracting oil and N.G. all over the world and selling it to us at an increased price, rather than just extracting it ourselves.
Is this not due to the EPA prohibiting our domestic efforts?
Furthermore,Is it true that much of our domestic oil is sent over to China for refining due to our inability to keep up with our own domestic refinery demands?

 

[mfp1016]

Yeah somewhat. This is also the reason that Valero has become such a huge oil company, they're refining a lot of the oil that we extract locally. Local oil refineries are becoming scarce. A great example is Alton, Illinois, wiki or google it. Thats where I started as a process engineer so many years ago.

 

[shogun323]

Originally Posted by mfp1016
http:///forum/post/2516114
Yeah somewhat. This is also the reason that Valero has become such a huge oil company, they're refining a lot of the oil that we extract locally. Local oil refineries are becoming scarce. A great example is Alton, Illinois, wiki or google it. Thats where I started as a process engineer so many years ago.
Interesting. I believe I had read that the number of (for lack of better terms) requests for new domestic refineries is nearly null.

 

[scsinet]

Originally Posted by mfp1016
http:///forum/post/2516045
Whats sad is that China and Indonesia are extracting oil and N.G. all over the world and selling it to us at an increased price, rather than just extracting it ourselves.
Which is ironic, because we in turn are contributing to whatever environmental risks the groups blocking the domestic drilling are citing to stop it.
We say "Oh no, you can't drill there because it causes ...." yet we have no problem with other countries doing it and selling the product to us.
Does that not seem hypocritical to anyone?

 

[spiderwoman]

If that was the only *good* promise, heck no. Where I come from unleaded gas is way more expensive than here. This is nothing

 

[shogun323]

Originally Posted by SCSInet
http:///forum/post/2516160
Which is ironic, because we in turn are contributing to whatever environmental risks the groups blocking the domestic drilling are citing to stop it.
We say "Oh no, you can't drill there because it causes ...." yet we have no problem with other countries doing it and selling the product to us.
Does that not seem hypocritical to anyone?
That is extremely hypocritical. I never looked at it that way. We won't drill ourselves, but we will totally enable China to do it.
In the end, we pay more, boost foreign ecomonies, there is no difference on the environmental impact.

 

[scsinet]

Originally Posted by Threed240
http:///forum/post/2516099
This is actually what I ment by the poll. .... Our gov can control some of this.
Yes. But not directly. The title of the thread suggested the notion of the president simply fixing the price of gas.
This is not possible.
The President can, through manipulation of supply by using means that are [somewhat] within his control, affect the price of gas. I say somewhat, because his attempts are in vain due to the action of environmental lobbying.
To put it as many of us can understand it... fixing the price would be like dumping a bottle of algae-fix into a tank. It may get rid of the algae, but it will cause a whole host of other problems and the algae will return in time. Instead, the root cause of the algae must be fixed.

 

[reefraff]

Originally Posted by ophiura
http:///forum/post/2516043
From an environmental perspective, I can also say I would MUCH rather have an oil well in the neighborhood than a nickel mine (or other metal used in hybrid/electric car batteries). Sometimes we have to be careful what we wish for...nothing made me more depressed than to see the beautiful landscape of West Texas marked with wind turbines. There were oil wells there too, with far lower profile. Everything has its price. You as a consumer have some choice in what you select, but I do encourage you to look into it a bit deeper than the surface or media reports. Part of the goal is to get you aggitated...that is what many news outlets want. And it works.
I hear you!
I grew up in an oil town, in fact the one MFP1016 list as his location. It was as much oilfield as as anything and it was amazing the variety of wild critters running around. I would rather have that and the "eye sore" of pumping units than the wall to wall condos and stuff that replaced them. Heck I am old enough (barely) to remember the permanent dericks that lined the area along Pacific Coast highway. Removing them in the late 60's was an improvement.

 

[threed240]

Originally Posted by SCSInet
http:///forum/post/2516169
Yes. But not directly. The title of the thread suggested the notion of the president simply fixing the price of gas.
This is not possible.
The President can, through manipulation of supply by using means that are [somewhat] within his control, affect the price of gas. I say somewhat, because his attempts are in vain due to the action of environmental lobbying.
To put it as many of us can understand it... fixing the price would be like dumping a bottle of algae-fix into a tank. It may get rid of the algae, but it will cause a whole host of other problems and the algae will return in time. Instead, the root cause of the algae must be fixed.
Thus is true.

 

[1journeyman]

Originally Posted by Threed240
http:///forum/post/2516323
Thus is true.

Only to a small percent.
Global supply and demand is the key. If we start pumping out an extra million barrels of oil in the USA a day it's not going to lower our cost all that much, unless we are going to further regulate the industry and make companies sell their oil only to US customers.

 

[socal57che]

Originally Posted by Darthtang AW
http:///forum/post/2516055
Oh yeah, because no one eats 17 double cheeseburgers each week
speak for yourself!!

I order them plain.
If anyone feels that they are being ripped off by oil companies...BUY SOME STOCK!!

Then hope and pray that nothing comes from this whole hydrogen thing.

 

[zman1]

Originally Posted by Darthtang AW
http:///forum/post/2516055
You pay 1.07 roughly for a McDonalds Double cheeseburger. McDonalds cost for the cheeseburger is roughly 58 cents. This includes labor and cost of goods. Yet no one complains about the huge profit McDonalds makes. Oh yeah, because no one eats 17 double cheeseburgers each week

The difference is that the people can choose other fuels sources than McDonalds for their body. However, you don't have other fuel sources for all our cars or trucks. Yep the consumer is paying more for everything since all businesses have been impacted by high fuel cost. It' not a widget you can choose not to buy...
Just like you can't choose your Utilties providers at home or work. The Public Service Commision tries to keep them in check - without it, gas prices wouldn't compare to the greed in that industry, if allowed to run unchecked. The commission has an issue with natural gas well owners selling their products to Ameren and that same person being a director in the office that sets pricing at Ameren. Ameren and the separate private owners don't see that as a conflict of interest, thank goodness the Public Service Commission does.... Enron anyone?