All the small independents buy oil and gas from the big ones. There are only about 5 big ones. It costs billions just to get into the big time.
The supply of crude is not the main problem. The capacity of the refineries is a bigger factor.
The big guys know the world wide reserves in the ground right down to a few million barrels. They know it's not a good idea to build more very expensive refineries.
Only about a third of a barrel of crude is gasoline when using the best cracking technology which takes more energy from other portions of that barrel to crack at over 700 deg.
They are also on the leading edge of alternative fuel systems and solar panel production, ARCO being the biggest solar panel and wind power manufacturer in the world for decades.
The day they run out of oil, you'll see new things pop up and under their name. They are not stupid.
..and it will be even more expensive. [if it's even possible without denuding the entire planet or going nuclear] Right now, we're getting a relatively free ride from the past and sucking it up fast.
First stage is alchohol..from coal and some from high energy consuming grain. [not to mention that most fertilizer is made from coal]
Second stage is hydrogen technology. The only way to make cheap hydrogen is to steam coal.
Making hydrogen from water takes a lot more energy than you get out of using the hydrogen.
I looked up the actual figures and methods, you can too. It doesn't look good.
Almost a third of the cost of gas at the pump is taxes. [was half as it's a per gallon tax]
The oil companies don't make much profit on a gallon of gasoline [10 cents a gallon wouldn't suprise me]..they just sell billions and billions of gallons... for much less than you pay for bottled water.
So yea, they're raking in the bucks, but not on any one individual driver. It's millions and millions of drivers and sales of petro chemicals and asphalt.
The resellers of gasoline makes so little money on sales that they have to have a convenience store to stay afloat and/or have multi lane stations and sell a couple thousand gallons a day. The sale of gas is mostly to get you to stop in.
There are many abandonded stations around that didn't make it. They used to depend on service but couldn't keep up with the technology of automobiles.
The only way to drive the price down is to drastically reduce consumption...but not too much. [We're in no position to reduce it too much]
Ode [ex tanker driver and motor head who spent a lot of time at the pipe line, the pumps and service stations .. back when there were some.]
At 07:15 PM 2/8/2004 -0600, you wrote:
>>>>
Sounds good to me. Please read all this and do it.<<<<
Yours Hank
Subject: [govtwatch2] PLEASE HELP! From Tom Paxton
Dear friends & family,
I hear we are going to hit close to $3.00 a gallon by
the summer. Want gasoline prices to come down? We need
to take some intelligent, united action. Phillip
Hollsworth, offered this good idea: This makes MUCH
MORE SENSE than the "don't buy gas on a certain day"
campaign that was going around last April or May! The
oil companies just laughed at that because they knew
we wouldn't continue to "hurt" ourselves by refusing
to buy gas. It was more of an inconvenience to us than
it was a problem for them. BUT, whoever thought of
this idea, has come up with a plan that can really
work. Please read it and join with us!
By now you're probably thinking gasoline priced at
about $1.50 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently
$1.77 for regular unleaded gas in Riverwoods, IL. We
all know that we're being screwed by the oil
companies. Does everyone remember how they drove up
the prices way past a dollar and got the gas prices to
where they wanted them, claiming there was a shortage
of oil. Well, there isn't any shortage now, and the
oil is more abundant than it was 35 years ago when the
price of a gallon of gas was 29 cents!!!
Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have
conditioned us to think that the cost of a gallon of
gas is CHEAP at $1.50- $1.75, we need to take
aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control
the marketplace....not sellers. With the price of
gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to
take action. The only way we are going to see the
price of gas come down is if we hit someone in the
pocketbook by not purchasing their gas! And we can do
that WITHOUT hurting ourselves. How? Since we all rely
on our cars, we can't just stop buying gas. But we CAN
have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to
force a price war.
Here's the idea: For the rest of this year, DON'T
purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies
(which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL. If they are not
selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their
prices. If they reduce their prices, the other
companies will have to follow suit. But to have an
impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon
and Mobil gas buyers. It's really simple to do!! Now,
don't whimp out on me at this point...keep reading and
I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of
people!!
I am sending this note to at least thirty people. If
each of you send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 =
300) ... and those 300 send it to at least ten more
(300 x 10 = 3,000)...and so on, by the time the
message reaches the sixth generation of people, we
will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers! If
those three million get excited and pass this on to
ten friends each, then 30 million people will have
been contacted! If it goes one level further, you
guessed it..... THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!! Again,
all You have to do is send this to 10 people. That's
all (If you don't understand how we can reach 300
million and all you have to do is send this to 10
people.... Well, let's face it, you just aren't a
mathematician. But I am .. so trust me on this one.)
How long would all that take? If each of us sends this
email out to ten more people within one day of
receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be
contacted within the next 8 days!!! I'll bet you I
didn't think you and I had that much potential, did
you! Acting together we can make a difference. If this
makes sense to you, please pass this message on.
PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE
$1.30 OR LESS RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN. THIS CAN
REALLY WORK!!!!!!!
PLEASE take a few minutes and pass this on to everyone
you know!! If you can't e-mail it to at least ten
people, please print out a bunch of copies and hand it
out to your family and friends!!
NO MORE MOBIL & EXXON FOR ME!!!!
Thank you very much!
Tom Paxton
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