Saturday, May 29, 2004

Yahoo! News Message Boards Top Stories

Yahoo! News Message Boards Top Stories: "Re: HELP SAVE AMERICA
by: incongruity333 (46/M/Las Vegas, NV) 05/29/04 04:26 pm
Msg: 1050 of 1053

'Terrorism and war. A terrorist attack in the Middle East, especially
on oil production facilities, could hurt supply. Worries about this
are leading futures traders to bet on higher rather than lower oil
prices ahead. Instability in Iraq also raises questions about that
country's ability to add substantially to the world supply anytime
soon.'

'Oil companies' profits. Some lawmakers say the oil companies are just
too greedy. 'Big oil companies and refiners are getting rich and
middle-class families are getting gouged,' Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada,
said in a recent Senate speech, The Associated Press reported. 'It's
clearly documented that refiner margins have doubled and tripled. The
oil companies weren't content to make 25 cents on every gallon of
gasoline. They now make 50 to 75 cents for every gallon of gasoline,'
Reid said.'

Interesting that in the post about a week ago, I estimated 2004 oil
companies profits as 'between $43 and $131 billions'. According to
this article, they have extra 25-50 cents per gallon. That makes it
about [$.25,$.50]*42*9 mln.*365 = ~ between 34 and 70 billions per
year.

By intersecting these two intervals, we are getting a more narrow
estimate of between 43 and 70 billions in 2004 extracted out of our
pockets. "