Windfall Profit Tax on Big Oil

[Lawrence of Arabia]

even bill oreilly is against big oil now. he finally got his head out of domestic issues and realized that brazil will be able to run all their cars on ethanol in a few years, and now wants that for america

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia
euros use trucks, but you dont see huge 18 wheelers, or suvs on the street.

Indeed... and most cars are far, far smaller than the US average. Even at $6 a gallon, it is cheaper than other modes of transport (trains aren't all that cheap.. and don't go everywhere).

Sikander's post hits the mark very succintly.

[Arrian]

What Sikander said.

-Arrian

[Lawrence of Arabia]

well actually, trains are pretty cheap, but only if you get the yearly passes. the $100 1/2 off pass gives you 1/2 off on all trains and the $200 'track 7' gives you that plus free transport after 7 pm and before 5 am.

a half hour train ride roundtrip costs about $10 with the 1/2 off pass.
going to zurich (3 and a half hours) costs about $30 round trip.

driving to zurich costs a lot more.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia
well actually, trains are pretty cheap, but only if you get the yearly passes. the $100 1/2 off pass gives you 1/2 off on all trains and the $200 'track 7' gives you that plus free transport after 7 pm and before 5 am.

a half hour train ride roundtrip costs about $10 with the 1/2 off pass.
going to zurich (3 and a half hours) costs about $30 round trip.

driving to zurich costs a lot more.

Well, I'm talking cargo (ie, trucks vs. cargo trains)

[Lawrence of Arabia]

yeah, they are trying to force all the trucks off the roads here because they clog up all the tunnels through the alps (Simplon, Gothard)

and besides, you cannot call them trucks, they are more like lorries.

plus, because of the transportation cartel here, it costs more to truck something from geneva to zuerich than from spain to geneva.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

also note, this is the only country in europe where diesel is more expensive than regular gas.

and trucks run on diesel.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by notyoueither


But seriously...

Wasn't Suncor built on $30 oil?

At $50 and then $60 and now $70, how could it not be paid off sometime before last Tuesday?

Do you know when the original plants will be paying full royalties?

And do you think that any new plants need the same royalty plans the original plants got?

well even if you attribute ALL of the revenue of say 100,000 barrels a day times 50 bucks (which is an illusion since its heavy bitumen) times 300 days (reasonable estimate of a years uptime), thats 1.5 Billion in revenue for a year . .. Discount the oil for needed upgrading and subtract operating costs and you would still end up with a project that takes YEARS to pay off. Add in the fact that all oilsands projects to date have not really stopped building and the capital expenditures can accrue faster than the revenue.

The royalty on oilsands after payout is the greater of 25% of net revenue or 1% of gross. So the governmnet gets a LOT more when its profitable but still gets something even if the oil companies were operating at a loss. A percentage royalty is DESIGNED to share the good times and bad somewhat with government.

[Flubber]

Err and is NOW the right time to mention that it looks like I might be moving from consulting to being directly employed by an oil company? The stock options actually look pretty good

[Lefty Scaevola]

I recall the prior brilliant program. For every $1 of tax collected, the goverment spent about $2 on administering it, and private industry and tax payors spent about $11 on accounting/paperwork.

[Dinner]

Which program?