Chevron, Unocal Deal.... Figures

Must be condasleeza's pay for her "services" to the giggling murder:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=businessNews&storyID=8077947


P.S. Why aren't we hearing more about this???

All these oil companies are consolidating. Without competition - they can raise gas prices. That is called a monopoly....

Oil companies are having record profits - there is not a gas shortage.

we are being ripped off again

Can't they consolidate while there is a looming oil shortage?

Besides, all US oil coporations together produce less oil then OPEC (there goes your "without competition"), so who's dominating the market exactly?

The oil companies are enjoying record profits. All they are doing is raising gas prices to make more money. They are not building new refineries. They are only 'pocketing' the profits.

Bush allowed a bill that permits oil companies to consolidate - to monpolize...

Any nobody is stopping them from raising gas prices ... for now...



http://www.pacificenvironment.org/articles/oil_profits.htm

<snip>
March 16, 2005

Buoyed by record oil prices, oil giant Exxon-Mobil announced in January that it had made a profit of $8.4 billion during the last quarter of 2004, a U.S. record. Royal Dutch/Shell announced a profit of $10 billion for the same period, the largest U.K. corporate profit in history.

</snip>

How do you know that "All they are doing is raising gas prices to make more money."?

How do you know that peak oil is not also a factor? How do you know oil companies are not building more refineries because there's not more oil to refine?
Have you forgotten Shell had to correct the estimates of its proved reserves downwards by a significant amount least year? It was enough of a scandal that Shell's top man had to go.

reap in extreme profits at our expense. Does it matter if we are at peak oil in the sense 'not much more oil to refine"?

How do I know they are making money? Read the news. Record profits - money going into pockets.

They are gouging us. Is that ok with you?

nor do i contest that they are making record profits - i contest only that that's "all they do".
what i say is that peak oil is a significant factor in this - which you seem to be denying.

three little, too little anti-trust protections.

There is no more as far as looming undiscovered tracts among Chevron's holdings; in fact they are getting reports that indicate they may have to restate their reserves lower.

To counter this, they are buying Unocal , which still has exploitable reserves in their holdings.

In a larger sense this is what is propping up the stock market as well. Companies when faced with declinig cash flows and profits are buying a smaller company and their balance sheet; this gives them the earnings they need to justify their otherwise inflated stock price.

This is neocon economics at its finest: show a profit (our in the case of Chevron, future profits) by purchasing them.