Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Oil industry profits -- where do they come from?

Executives of oil majors hemm and haw about where their recent and massive profits come from, but they will mostly eventually state quite clearly that when the price of the base commodity (in this case, crude) increases, profits also will increase.

And BP, for all it's "green" advertising (you've seen the commercials with the hippy guy and his buddy all worried about where gas comes from like it was an organic energy bar), is no different.

Yesterday's New York Times reported on the massive 2nd q. profits BP has brought: $7 billion, or the equivalent of $55k per minute.

Now, let me ask you, my dear reader, a question. Do the oil majors have an incentive to bring down the price of crude?

The current price of oil includes a 25% risk premium, which is the additional cost the market is willing to pay in the face of Mideast terrorism, or violence in the Niger Delta. The oil majors are benefiting hugely from this premium. Why should they work to make it go away?

1 comment:

Klusplatz said...

It's amazing how many ignorant people pretend they know something when they don't. You should spend time learning, not fooling people into thinking that they could learn something that's correct from you.