Quote :

"BP PLC, one of the world's largest oil companies, reported a 34 percent rise in quarterly profit Tuesday as record energy prices more than outweighed hurricane damage to its rigs and refineries. BP said net profit for the three months ended Sept. 30 rose to $6.53 billion, up from $4.87 billion in the third quarter of 2004. Revenue jumped to $97.73 billion from $66.73 billion. "The recent hurricanes in the U.S. have impacted our results. However, underlying performance is strong, amplified by high but volatile prices of oil, gas and products," said Chief Executive Lord Browne. Production was down 2 percent compared to the third quarter last year, primarily because of the impact of hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, the company said. "We anticipate production from the deepwater Gulf of Mexico to be back to normal, with the exception of the Shell-operated Mars project, by the end of the year," Lord Browne said. BP is the first major oil company to report quarterly results reflecting the impact of the hurricanes, ahead of Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Exxon Mobil Corp. later this week. Oil prices peaked at $70.85 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Aug. 30 after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, temporarily shutting down at least 80 percent of its crude-oil and natural gas production and crippling many refineries. Hurricane Rita followed four weeks later, delaying a return to normal production. Browne said that oil prices "are expected to be well supported into the winter." The company said its replacement cost profit for the quarter, considered a key indicator by analysts, rose 16 percent to $4.41 billion from $3.79 billion. The measure excludes exceptional items and gain in the value of inventory holdings, providing the amount it would cost to replace assets at current prices. The third-quarter result included a net non-operating charge of $921 million, largely due to the loss of fair value on Innovene, the company's petrochemicals unit that it is selling for $9 billion to British chemical company Ineos PLC. That compared with a charge of $394 million in the third quarter of 2004. BP said "the proposed sale was sufficiently well advanced at the end of September for the Innovene operations to be classified as a 'disposal group' as of Sept. 30." "

ok does anyone else think this is messed up?

over $6 BILLION in NET PROFIT (for those who don't know...it's the profit after paying all the bills)


I mean seriously that is a lot of money


Their 1 quarter profit was more than the GDP of the following nations:

147 Brunei $6,500,000,000
148 Martinique $6,117,000,000
149 Swaziland $5,702,000,000
150 Lesotho $5,594,000,000
151 Mauritania $5,195,000,000
152 Bahamas, The $5,099,000,000
153 Fiji $5,007,000,000
154 Mongolia $4,877,000,000
155 Central African Republic $4,584,000,000
156 French Polynesia $4,580,000,000
157 Barbados $4,496,000,000
158 Somalia $4,361,000,000
159 Burundi $3,830,000,000
160 Guadeloupe $3,513,000,000
161 Eritrea $3,300,000,000
162 Liberia $3,261,000,000
163 Guam $3,200,000,000
164 New Caledonia $3,158,000,000
165 Sierra Leone $3,057,000,000
166 Guyana $2,792,000,000
167 Bhutan $2,700,000,000
168 Gambia, The $2,597,000,000
169 Netherlands Antilles $2,450,000,000
170 Virgin Islands $2,400,000,000
171 Bermuda $2,330,000,000
172 Jersey $2,200,000,000
173 Congo, Republic of the $2,186,000,000
174 Aruba $1,940,000,000
175 West Bank $1,700,000,000
176 Man, Isle of $1,600,000,000
177 French Guiana $1,551,000,000
178 Suriname $1,533,000,000
179 Andorra $1,300,000,000
179 Guernsey $1,300,000,000
180 Belize $1,280,000,000
181 Cayman Islands $1,270,000,000
181 Equatorial Guinea $1,270,000,000
182 Maldives $1,250,000,000
183 Cyprus - Turkish area $1,217,000,000
184 Guinea-Bissau $1,164,000,000
185 Greenland $1,100,000,000
186 Samoa $1,000,000,000
186 Faroe Islands $1,000,000,000
187 San Marino $940,000,000
188 Northern Mariana Islands $900,000,000
189 Monaco $870,000,000
190 Saint Lucia $866,000,000
191 Liechtenstein $825,000,000
192 Solomon Islands $800,000,000
193 Gaza Strip $768,000,000
194 Antigua and Barbuda $750,000,000
195 Seychelles $626,000,000
196 Djibouti $619,000,000
197 Cape Verde $600,000,000
198 Vanuatu $563,000,000
199 American Samoa $500,000,000
199 Gibraltar $500,000,000
200 Comoros $441,000,000
201 East Timor $440,000,000
201 Grenada $440,000,000
202 Dominica $380,000,000
203 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines $339,000,000
203 Saint Kitts and Nevis $339,000,000
204 British Virgin Islands $320,000,000
205 Micronesia, Federated States of $277,000,000
206 Tonga $236,000,000
207 Turks and Caicos Islands $231,000,000
208 Sao Tome and Principe $200,000,000
209 Palau $174,000,000
210 Marshall Islands $115,000,000
211 Cook Islands $105,000,000
212 Anguilla $104,000,000
213 Mayotte $85,000,000
214 Kiribati $79,000,000
215 Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) $75,000,000
216 Nauru $60,000,000
217 Wallis and Futuna $57,600,000
218 Saint Pierre and Miquelon $48,300,000
219 Montserrat $29,000,000
220 Saint Helena $18,000,000
221 Niue $7,600,000
222 Tokelau $1,500,000

10/25/2005 8:31:09 AM

sounds like someone needs another tax cut.

10/25/2005 8:40:01 AM

What does that mean??? seriously?? I am lost.

10/25/2005 9:00:19 AM

i mean....heaven forbid a company make a profit

10/25/2005 9:38:03 AM

i'm trying really hard to believe that our president, an oil man, has anything to do with the fact that our economy is sucking donkey balls but the oil companies are making record profits. it just seems like too much of a coincidence to me.

10/25/2005 10:06:28 AM

Quote :

"i mean....heaven forbid a company make a profit"

whoop - didn't see that one coming!

how about "it's called SUPPLY AND DEMAND, you f'ing retard" or "that's how Capitalism works, you pinko-commie"

10/25/2005 10:16:01 AM

i dont think just that they are making a profit is why people are mad about this

but if you cant see that and dont understand it theres not really any point explaiing it

10/25/2005 11:10:39 AM

it sucks

because fuel is more like a utility than a commodity

10/25/2005 11:35:17 AM

You are just upset you don't own stock in BP.

10/25/2005 12:05:37 PM

everyone values the same things i value in life

10/25/2005 12:07:01 PM

my site made around 100 million net profit last month alone. and we were down 1/3 of the month. ya it is ungodly. us demand is already above the us refining capacity with every refinery running full out so having so many refineries down just made it that much more apparent. sucks for you guys that easley won't lower your taxes. nc gas tax is ridiculous.

10/25/2005 12:10:48 PM

everyone gotten their trickle down million?

[Edited on October 25, 2005 at 12:14 PM. Reason : -]

10/25/2005 12:14:15 PM

well, the gas tax by itself isn't all that much, plus it helps the state.

I am more concerned about the rising oil consumption and the refining bottleneck in the US.

10/25/2005 12:14:23 PM

^agree with you on consumption and refining capacity definitely but nc's tax is higher than any other southern state and the roads quite frankly aren't much better.

^^haha you'd be surprised how little we see of that. we do get performace based bonuses tho - based on company performance, site, and then individual. last year, i was rated quite well and my bonus was around $10k. so definitely not a million.

[Edited on October 25, 2005 at 12:20 PM. Reason : er]

10/25/2005 12:17:58 PM

Quote :

"You are just upset you don't own stock in BP. "

Well hell, Loneshark, If they had just put their money where their mouth was every time you told them to, I think half the lefties in the soap box would be millionaires by now.

10/25/2005 12:18:00 PM

sure, let me drop out of school, move back home, and invest the money i have left in oil companies and biotechs and whatnot right now, that makes sense for someone from a rural shithole town whose parents are a teacher and a salesman, respectively.

10/25/2005 12:58:02 PM

Quote :

"it's called SUPPLY AND DEMAND"

Quote :

"that's how Capitalism works, you pinko-commie"

10/25/2005 1:10:44 PM

Quote :

"agree with you on consumption and refining capacity definitely but nc's tax is higher than any other southern state and the roads quite frankly aren't much better."

We have one of the best road systems in the country, believe it or not. Long live the DOT!

10/25/2005 1:38:57 PM

Quote :

"Well hell, Loneshark, If they had just put their money where their mouth was every time you told them to, I think half the lefties in the soap box would be millionaires by now."

Your right! And they still look at me funny when I tell them to do that!
Anyway, my advice still stands. If you believe oil is going to become more scarce in the future, only an idiot keeps any money in the bank. Hell, only an idiot would buy a house, new car, or text-books. They would have all their money in oil company stocks (not the refiners but the people that actually own wells).

I personally believe that oil stocks are over priced right now and sometime within the next year they are going to fall. Of course, I'm not a peak-oiller

10/25/2005 1:48:13 PM

AHEM....
/message_topic.aspx?topic=360227&page=1

10/25/2005 3:50:48 PM

According to http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/gdu/gasdiesel.asp, gas prices ($/gallon) for the month of September broke down as:

					  Avg over	Avg since
		 September 05		past 12 mos.	Jan 2000

		  %   |	  $	   |	    %	    |	    %
----------------------+------------+----------------+-------------
Taxes		15.2  |	0.435	   |	  20.57	    |	  26.94
----------------------+------------+----------------+-------------
Distribution	      |		   |		    |
& Marketing	 7.5  |	0.232	   |	   9.31	    |	  12.23
----------------------+------------+----------------+-------------
Refining	27.3  |	0.783	   |	  17.71	    |	  15.95
----------------------+------------+----------------+-------------
Crude Oil	50.0  |	1.450	   |	  52.43	    |	  44.88
----------------------+------------+----------------+-------------
Total		      | 2.900	   |                |

10/25/2005 5:33:08 PM

ok so following your numbers there (which I get) how much money did the state of NC make off of gas in the last quarter (anyone know the following: avg price per gallon of gas, and number of gallons sold in NC...also same for diesel (are the taxes the same for diesel??))

10/25/2005 7:12:44 PM

Gas taxes are a little odd. In general they're a fixed value as opposed to a percentage of the cost. If you crunch the numbers above, you'll find that the average gas tax has stayed around .44 a gallon.

In 2001, North Carolina used approximately 11.4 million gallons of gas a day. I'm pretty sure that the gas tax in NC is about .45 a gallon.

11,400,000 * .45 * 365 = $1,872,450,000

1.9 Billion dollars.

In 2001, the US consumed 3,143 million barrels of gasoline. Using .43 for the average tax:

3,143,000,000 * 42 * .43 = $56,762,580,000

56.8 Billion dollars.

10/25/2005 7:40:26 PM

RE: Gas Tax

So the state should have to give up the money it needs to build and maintain roads? Maybe after things get bad enough that it cuts into the oil companies profits.

That money has to come from somewhere, might as well come in proportion to road usage.

10/26/2005 1:58:15 PM

Quote :

"sucks for you guys that easley won't lower your taxes. nc gas tax is ridiculous."

Hahahaha, what a cunt. If you think gas taxes, the ones that attempt to keep up with the neccessary construction and repair of roads (we have more than any other state) are what needs to be changed about gas prices, then you have serious problems.

This just in, ConocoPhillips reports quarterly profits up by EIGHTY NINE GODDAMNED PER CENT.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051026/bs_nm/energy_conocophillips_earns_dc_4

10/26/2005 2:01:04 PM

Quote :

"haha you'd be surprised how little we see of that. we do get performace based bonuses tho - based on company performance, site, and then individual. last year, i was rated quite well and my bonus was around $10k."

so this is why you are looking at $100,000 sports cars

/message_topic.aspx?topic=360227

10/26/2005 4:05:53 PM

^^no, i didn't say i thought that was the only problem. consumption and refining capacity are primary concerns - supply and demand. but nc gas tax is the 5th highest in the nation. cut some fat out [i.e. that mess they went through when working on i-40 near g-boro for damn near 10 years] of the DOT and you don't need $0.27/gal to maintain the roads.

Quote :

"About 17.5 cents of the 27 cent tax is a flat rate. There is also a variable rate that increases when the price of gas increases."

http://www.wral.com/news/5049580/detail.html

[Edited on October 26, 2005 at 5:38 PM. Reason : er]

10/26/2005 5:38:45 PM

NC has long been known as the good roads state. I admit that we have probably fallen from deserving that, but lowering the gas tax isn't going to improve anything.

10/26/2005 5:57:14 PM

Cut some fat out of the DOT?

What fat.

10/26/2005 8:28:41 PM

I love how everyone points to the fact that our refineries are bottlenecked...when it is surely the amazing and unpredictable increase in demand rather than the closing of refineries that has led to the supply shortage.

10/26/2005 10:25:54 PM

Well, if it is the refineries, they have no excuse now. They are flush with cash to build new refineries. They can even buy all the politicians they need to cut the red tape.

10/27/2005 12:20:34 AM

^Great. All of that will cut the construction time for a new refinery from 10 years to a measily 6 years. Amazing!

10/27/2005 12:45:36 AM

THIS IS WHAT FORESIGHT IS FOR.

10/27/2005 12:50:45 AM

Quote :

"how about "it's called SUPPLY AND DEMAND, you f'ing retard" or "that's how Capitalism works, you pinko-commie""

You know, helping 10-12 campany board members make billions while millions fall further into debt and hopelesness is not what our country is about, especially when corporations consistantly use abusive and anti-competitive practices. Especially when said corporations have such heavy government subsidization in the form of tax incentives and abusive tax shelters.

I'm sorry, but I would rather errr on the side of the solvency of an entire society.

[Edited on October 27, 2005 at 12:59 AM. Reason : .]

10/27/2005 12:53:58 AM

^That pretty much sums up what I feel about this. I'm glad a few oil companies and their CEOs/families will end up with their wad, meanwhile the entire economy tanks because people in general don't have any disposable income left to spend.

10/27/2005 8:33:53 AM

Quote :

"Well, if it is the refineries, they have no excuse now. They are flush with cash to build new refineries. They can even buy all the politicians they need to cut the red tape."

not nearly as easy as you might think. building a new refinery in the us is almost impossible due to environmental regulations. it'd take years just to get the permits. then probably 6+ years to build (and that would be 24/7 construction). it took us probably 5 years to get the permits and build our low sulfur gasoline unit.. and that is only one unit (we have 16 different units on site).

plus what you will find is that existing refineries will be going out of business ... some are literally 75-80 years old. as equipment gets old and out dated, the expense of replacing and meeting current environmental regs will make it too costly long-term - especially for smaller privately owned plants (i.e. one that only run 45M bbls per day). refinery profit is all about margins - yeah this past month we made $100MM but only a few years ago we only made $10MM for the year.

[Edited on October 27, 2005 at 9:39 AM. Reason : er]

10/27/2005 9:37:43 AM

Wow, being an oil company sounds like hard work!


Exuse me while I go pour out a forty for ya.

10/27/2005 9:54:52 AM

^^I think I heard something on NPR about the govt. putting some pressure on the oil tycoons to use the 100s of billions in profits toward building more refineries. Maybe that blurb was more of what people want the govt. to do rather than what govt. is actually doing.

Heck. Why not put a refinery on the NC coast. We get hit by hurricanes almost every year. Great location!

P.S. I know how tough it is to only be raking in $10MM on the year. I could barely put food on the table. We couldn't even buy off one of the politicial parties, let alone both. Tough times. Glad to hear you've bounced back to $30MM/month


[Edited on October 27, 2005 at 10:54 AM. Reason : i'll get it right one day]

10/27/2005 10:50:30 AM

Quote :

"NEW YORK (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil company, on Thursday said quarterly profit surged 75 percent to nearly $10 billion, raking in a bonanza from record oil prices. ADVERTISEMENT The profit was the highest in the company's history, surpassing the record it set in the 2004 fourth quarter. Revenue jumped 32 percent to just over $100 billion. "

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051027/bs_nm/energy_exxon_earns_dc_3

10/27/2005 11:32:49 AM

Quote :

"P.S. I know how tough it is to only be raking in $10MM on the year. I could barely put food on the table. We couldn't even buy off one of the politicial parties, let alone both. Tough times. Glad to hear you've bounced back to $30MM/month "

i don't think you understand how much it actually costs to make improvements on refinery scale. one project i am working on costs $27MM and it is only for environmental and safety - no return in terms of cash. that is more than twice what we made some years.

and no, it wasn't $30MM.... it was $100MM


*note: personally i think the money oil companies, including mine, are making is obscene. but there are plenty of other industries that are sticking our back pockets too. oil companies are just an easy target.

10/27/2005 12:18:08 PM

Quote :

"i don't think you understand how much it actually costs to make improvements on refinery scale. one project i am working on costs $27MM and it is only for environmental and safety - no return in terms of cash. that is more than twice what we made some years."

My bad I assumed that profits were the things left over after all expenses were paid.

Quote :

"and no, it wasn't $30MM.... it was $100MM "

Not to be nit-picky but wasn't it $100MM for the quarter, ie. three months, ie. the reason I said $30MM/month. I guess you could call me on the $3.33333MM/month I didn't include but that is sofa change to them right?

10/27/2005 12:23:43 PM

Quote :

"my site made around 100 million net profit last month alone."

anyway, the point i guess i am trying to make is that sometimes we put in projects - i.e. low sulfur gasoline (which we don't make a dime on)- that can cost upwards of $100MM. not every year, sometimes. money in the bank pays for that. some years we don't make any profit (as a site, not as in the company). some years we do.... this year for example.

i personally hate the gas prices - i pay them too. but the fact is that us refining capacity cannot meet consumption by a good million barrels per day. reduce consumption, and you will reduce gas and oil prices. supply and demand. or raise capacity and accomplish the same. but you have to convince the EPA to let us build more refineries. as a company, if it costs more than it is worth, why should we?

anywho, shells numbers will come out today or tomorrow. expect something similar to exxon.

[Edited on October 27, 2005 at 12:37 PM. Reason : er]

10/27/2005 12:28:19 PM

Quote :

"^^haha you'd be surprised how little we see of that. "

i wouldnt be. it all goes to the CEO.

10/27/2005 12:53:19 PM

Where was everyone's sympathy when back in 2001 and 1998 when the oil companies were losing their shirts?

If you think they should artificially cut prices right now, then I guess back then you should have volunteered to pay artificially higher prices? Just because the pump says 98 cents a gallon doesn't mean you couldn't have gone ahead and paid $1.50 for it.

10/27/2005 1:17:15 PM

Quote :

"Where was everyone's sympathy when back in 2001 and 1998 when the oil companies were losing their shirts? "

I can't speak for the economy of '98 (tech bubble still rising) but I seem to remember that everyone was losing their shirts in 2k1. I think the problem today is that most people feel like the only ones not losing their shirts now are the oil companies.

Health insurance - up
Gas - nearly double
Inflation 3% (or so)

Salary? I just changed jobs so it's hard to say. The average was 2% up but my old job made me wonder just who these people getting 2% raises are. We got one 2% raise in a 4 year period. I suspect most people are making less per year because their "fixed" expenses have gone up 10-15% along with inflation while their income has remained the same.

/just crabbin'

[Edited on October 27, 2005 at 1:35 PM. Reason : -]

10/27/2005 1:33:02 PM

at its root, government beuracracy and control is to blame. The oil companies are in the business of making money. If they had the ability to cheaply produce more gas, they would. If the oil industry was allowed to grow at the same rate demand has grown over the last 40 years, prices would be stable, not nessacarily at 99 cents a gallon, but stable somewhere b/t $1 and $2

Is Bush doing anything to purposely help the oil companies make bank? probably not.

should he put immense pressure on the EPA to ease restrictions on refinery builing? absolutely. So, on the short term maybe it is Bush's fault for inaction.

The answer is NOT to control prices to help out us consumers.

[Edited on October 27, 2005 at 2:10 PM. Reason : **]

10/27/2005 2:07:13 PM

http://news.yahoo.com/fc/business/oil_and_gas

Quote :

"Frist orders oil price probe Reuters - 1 hour, 32 minutes ago WASHINGTON - Amid record-high earnings from oil companies, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist on Thursday ordered a Senate hearing with testimony from major oil company executives on why energy prices are high. The unexpected announcement by the chamber's top Republican showed the growing political pressure as American consumers brace for higher winter heating costs at the same time energy companies are reporting fat profits. "

10/27/2005 5:21:23 PM

[Edited on October 27, 2005 at 5:33 PM. Reason : [opps double post]

10/27/2005 5:33:03 PM

I hope someone invents a car that runs on water, and all the oil companies are left sitting around with a couple billion barrels of worthess product.

10/27/2005 5:49:38 PM

$2.19 in Chesapeake

8888

[Edited on October 27, 2005 at 7:51 PM. Reason : 8888 and I missed it]

10/27/2005 7:48:07 PM