Alaska oil field shut down

[Stephanie]

i have one close to me. whats the problem? and if we get so little from alaska to begin with, why are so many griping about bp? i would think people would be appluading the shutdown of oil production. people who want no production should be delighted with paying high prices for gas. whats the beef?

The beef is to get off of our fat duffs and look for something safer and more reliable to use. We should've started back in the 1970's with the energy crisis but noone wanted to. We have the ability to do so and I believe that this sleeping giant is finally waking from it's coma and saying holy sh*t Batman!

Stratosphere - so far so good. You're the first one to bring up politics. We have a monster thread about Israel and Hezbollah and with a few exceptions that have been dealt with, it's managed to stay on topic and not political.

gtalum - where should some of those nuclear power plants go then? Roswell?

[Stratosphere747]

Stephanie,

I am only bringing up politics because of the reasoning behind a few of the posts.

The specific topic at hand, is not political. When we begin to talk about profits and such; that requires going down the political field...

[Stephanie]

Stephanie,

I am only bringing up politics because of the reasoning behind a few of the posts.

The specific topic at hand, is not political. When we begin to talk about profits and such; that requires going down the political field...

I agree but to me, I've seen worst posts that have gone off the deep political end. BELIEVE ME, this is being watched.

If you or anyone else sees a thread going off the deep end politically, personally, etc., please do not hesitate to contact one of the Mods or Admins.

[gtalum]

Yep. Like greed.

What is greedy about a sub-10% profit margin?

[Stephanie]

Yep. Like greed.

What is greedy about a sub-10% profit margin?

It's difficult to feel bad when they are still reporting record $$$$ profits each quarter.

[Stratosphere747]

Yep. Like greed.

What is greedy about a sub-10% profit margin?

It's difficult to feel bad when they are still reporting record $$$$ profits each quarter.

Stephanie,

There is a huge difference between profit vs. profit margin...

Just because they are "bringing" in more money, does not mean they are actually "profiting" more money..

[george_r_1961]

Yep. Like greed.

What is greedy about a sub-10% profit margin?

It's difficult to feel bad when they are still reporting record $$$$ profits each quarter.

Stephanie,

There is a huge difference between profit vs. profit margin...

Just because they are "bringing" in more money, does not mean they are actually "profiting" more money..

Sounds like corporate doublespeak to me

[gtalum]

It's difficult to feel bad when they are still reporting record $$$$ profits each quarter.

I never said you should feel bad. The oil industry is doing quite well. But people fail to realize that as costs increase, net profit increases as well in any successful business. If a publicly traded company's profit margin falls significantly, the company will lose investors and go bust.

The smart way to hedge against rising oil prices is to buy oil company stocks.

[gtalum]

Sounds like corporate doublespeak to me

It's just economics.

[Stephanie]

Yep. Like greed.

What is greedy about a sub-10% profit margin?

It's difficult to feel bad when they are still reporting record $$$$ profits each quarter.

Stephanie,

There is a huge difference between profit vs. profit margin...

Just because they are "bringing" in more money, does not mean they are actually "profiting" more money..

No crap - I'm an accountant...That's why I highlighted $$$$.

Still, it more $$$$ that is brought in and if they are losing that much money, or PROFITABILITY, the $$$$ would also be going down as well, not up.

[gtalum]

If you view this chart you will see that we are currently paying over 20% less for oil today in real dollars than we did in 1980, 26 years ago. Outisde the world of computers, can you name anything else for which this is true?

[Stephanie]

I've seen and read that before gtalum. In comparison to other countries, especially Europe, we are paying alot less.

I give up, what else outside of computers are we paying less for today in real dollars as compared to 1980?

My point is why the sudden jump over the last few years? Why are we playing "catchup now"?? Is it because they now have us by the...???

Also, I remember when the price of gas went to over $1.00 - I just got my driver's license...

[coriolis]

Nice chart. It says a lot.

Here's what I have to say about this whole mess:

I rode my bike to work today. La la la la la


That does more than ***ching and moaning.

[Stephanie]

Nice chart. It says a lot.

Here's what I have to say about this whole mess:

I rode my bike to work today. La la la la la

[gtalum]

I give up, what else outside of computers are we paying less for today in real dollars as compared to 1980?

Oil. That's about it.

My point is why the sudden jump over the last few years?

A destabilized supply chain is the nu,mber one reason. A large portion fo the world's oil comes form the middle east, which as we all know is majorly unstable right bnow, in no small part due to our own efforts there. I'm not judging whether we should be doing it or not, but our war in Iraq has definitely caused prices to rise.

Another large source of oil is Venezuela, and no one knows what that nut will do.

There is also severely increasing demand. Remember, China and India, the two largest nations on Earth, are both exploding economically and their oil use will grow hugely over the next few decades.

Unstable and likely decreasing long-term supply coupled with exploding long-term demand spell massive price increases.

[Johno8080]

so the world uses 85million bpd and the USA consumes 20million? thats 1/4 almost

thats like 15 people per barrel compared to 1 barrel per 42 people here!


kinda scary, for health, enviroment ect ect ect

[gtalum]

gtalum - where should some of those nuclear power plants go then? Roswell?

Sure. Anywhere in the desert. Old military bases. The list of possibilites are endless. With modern power transmission capabilities, there's no reason for power plants to be near population centers.

[rainstorm]

Yep. Like greed.

What is greedy about a sub-10% profit margin?

like i said glatum, rage and irratiionality wont allow them to see. i ask again, do any business owners here sell their goods and services at "cost"?

2-if anyone can devise a plan where gas can be sold cheaper than the oil companies do, please post it here

3-if the oil companies made no profit on a gallon of gas, the price would drop a whopping 8 cent

4-i have not heard a single peep in any posts that people are upset that govt, which does squat to produce gas for us to use, steps in and charges 5-10 times as much in tax than the oil co's make in profit. why is no one upset at the govt making a windfall profit on all of us?

[brunota2003]

gtalum - where should some of those nuclear power plants go then? Roswell?

Sure. Anywhere in the desert. Old military bases. The list of possibilites are endless. With modern power transmission capabilities, there's no reason for power plants to be near population centers.

but its not the power plants getting near population centers, its the pop centers getting near the power plants, so you build a nuclear plant, you need people to go there and work, so they live nearby, then they need food and gas, so then people start building gas stations and food stores, which in turn offers more jobs, then along comes Wal-Mart...well we know where it goes from there...there are places where I used to live in Va, in the 1970's to 1980's when my mom grew up there, it was boondocks with forests everywhere...I partly grew up there in the late 90's and it was more populated, still out in the middle of nowhere though, now there is a Wal-Mart disturbution center about 10 miles away and it is packed compared to how I knew it, homes with 2 acres going for $400,000+, back when I was younger you could by a nice house with 20+ acres for $400,000...so where ever the money and jobs go...aka power plant...so do the big companies as they can get lots o' $$$ off of the people...just my $0.02 along with actually seeing it happen...

[george_r_1961]

Yep. Like greed.

What is greedy about a sub-10% profit margin?

like i said glatum, rage and irratiionality wont allow them to see. i ask again, do any business owners here sell their goods and services at "cost"?

2-if anyone can devise a plan where gas can be sold cheaper than the oil companies do, please post it here

3-if the oil companies made no profit on a gallon of gas, the price would drop a whopping 8 cent
4-i have not heard a single peep in any posts that people are upset that govt, which does squat to produce gas for us to use, steps in and charges 5-10 times as much in tax than the oil co's make in profit. why is no one upset at the govt making a windfall profit on all of us?

Sources please???

As for question 2 its simple. For starters instead of paying high bonuses to the fat cat execs why not invest some of that money in facilities maintainence? Im not griping about the $2.90 im paying now..it is what it is. If oil hits $80 a barrel over this Alaska pipeline fiasco the price of regular gas will increase to about $4 a gallon. That would devastate our already fragile economy. But as long as Big Oil keeps making record profits I guess thats ok And your argument about gas taxes has absoulutely no merit whatsoever. That money goes into highway projects and repair, kinda makes sense to tax fuel for that purpose doesnt it?