World-News

Huffington Post
by Robert Weissman

05/29/08

Is Big Oil ripping off consumers? Are Wall Street speculators manipulating oil markets? What should be done? Whether or not Big Oil is improperly restricting refinery capacity, whether or not Wall Street traders are driving up the traded price of oil to heights completely disconnected from supply-and-demand fundamentals, a few things are clear about gas prices — and so is the most appropriate, immediate policy response. Current pricing arrangements are generating profit gushers for the large, integrated oil companies — ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco and the like. While the price of oil is going up, these companies’ drilling expenses are not. Oil can trade at $40 a barrel, $90 a barrel, or $130 a barrel. It still costs ExxonMobil and the rest of Big Oil only about $20 to get a barrel of oil out of the ground...

http://tinyurl.com/5qcq4f


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



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