Down with the evil Gas lords. (yes, i am brave enough to post another from myspace)

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Kontiki


Um, no I'm not. That would be Flubber.

Ya

I'm just the guy sitting in the legal department of a major oil company and who has reviewed hundreds of leases and freehold documents alike. I'm just the guy helping a government agency draft their royalty legislation . . . I'm just the guy that has studied the oil and gas regimes of a couple of dozen places

[Kidlicious]

Kaak,

They can't lower their prices. The're a corporation and they have to act in the interest of the shareholders. Otherwise they will lose their jobs.

[Kaak]

oh..Arrian, check out TxTag We throw this little guy on our windows and it works at any Tollway in Tx, even for airports. to never slowing down!

John, I was responding to Ghengis' post:

The reason this would not work is that the gas stations don't refine their gasoline. It all comes from the same refineries.

For example. In my state we have one refinery. Last I checked it was owned by Valero. Pretty much every gas station in the state gets its gasoline from that refinery, Shell-Texaco, Exxon-Mobil, Love's, 7-11, etc.

So, if you don't buy from the big guys your still getting the same gasoline from the same refinery. And its still the same amount so there's no pressure on it to reduce the prices it charges.

G: since this discussion is about Exxon, I think that kind of kills your point.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Kaak
I just think it's interesting that instead of trying to come up with creative ways of changing things, the people on this thread are not only bending over and taking it, but making excuses for them while they are getting raped.

Making excuses for the fact that gas is one of the very few (if not only) commodities that costs LESS than what inflation from 1950 prices would indicate?

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Spiffor
I've got a question to the participants of this thread. The oil price is set globally, that much is clear.

However, I wonder about gasoline: do specific oil refiners (such as Exxon) have markets everywhere in the world, or do they tend to have markets for their refined products mostly localized in specific countries?

Gas prices are set locally.

[Kaak]

Kid: Agreed. No reason to unless no one was buying there gas And spiff, it seems prices vary a big globally. Right now oil in london is >$72, while it is <$71 in the US...

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Kaak
I would also like to point out that from that chart, there are roughly 6.2 billion barrels refined each year in the US.. So John, I'd say that makes the ~1bill that Exxon pulls out of the ground fairly significant.

Refined in the US != Sold in the US.

Secondly "Operable Atmospheric Crude Oil Distillation Capacity " is a legal definition of all production capacity of a refinery, both used and unused: "the maximum number of barrels of input that can be processed during a 24-hour period after making allowances for [certain] limitations..."

http://fedgovcontracts.com/pe03-43.htm (middle of page)

This has nothing to do with how much they are producing, just how much they can produce. Big difference there, Kaak.

And since 5 billion isn't Exxon, I haven't the slightest idea what you're saying.

[GhengisFarb™]

Originally posted by Spiffor
I've got a question to the participants of this thread. The oil price is set globally, that much is clear.

However, I wonder about gasoline: do specific oil refiners (such as Exxon) have markets everywhere in the world, or do they tend to have markets for their refined products mostly localized in specific countries?

I'm not sure. From my experiences the petroleum industry has different segments, Exploration, Production (from out of the ground), Refining, Retail.

Some companies concentrate on one segment, and often large companies move in and out of segments. Refineries often change hands from one company to the other and I'm not really sure why. I know one large company a friend of mine works for bought all of a competitors retail operations, then 4 years later sold all of its retail operations and refineries to concentrate on production and is now shifting back to refineries and retail.

It's possible for a company to own oil a refinery in a market and not have any retail outlets, and vice versa. Typically they cite concentrating on the area they are most profitible/competive in, but those area seem to change quite often.

[Kaak]

Really Imran? Like computers? When technology gets better, production costs can go down. surprised you didn't know that :-p

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Flubber


Ya

I'm just the guy sitting in the legal department of a major oil company and who has reviewed hundreds of leases and freehold documents alike. I'm just the guy helping a government agency draft their royalty legislation . . . I'm just the guy that has studied the oil and gas regimes of a couple of dozen places

You're the guy who is not Kaak's dad. Poseur.

[Kaak]

oooh john, so you are saying that there is actually less than 6 billion, possibly even a lot less, refined, and exxon refines almost a billion of it's own oil. And that helps your point how?

Thanks

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Kaak
Really Imran? Like computers? When technology gets better, production costs can go down. surprised you didn't know that :-p

Computers today is a vastly different thing than computers of 1950. You should know that, as your 'technology' statement indicates. Petroleum is exactly the same thing as it was in 1950.

[Kaak]

true enough, but the efficiency in producing it is much greater, exactly like computers.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui


Making excuses for the fact that gas is one of the very few (if not only) commodities that costs LESS than what inflation from 1950 prices would indicate?

Shh-- don't insert logic-- The same person that pays a $1.30 for that Coke that used to cost $0.10 is getting assraped if gasoline costs twice or four times what it did in that same time period-- Isn't that obvious?

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Petroleum is exactly the same thing as it was in 1950.

Yes, but are refining methods?

As an oblique example, trees are exactly the same too. But improvements in lumber mills mean that twice as much lumber can now be produced from the same amount of trees...and that's not including plywood.