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Nov 4, 2005 3:53 pm

Paid $2.14 for regular this morning. WooHoo!!!

Didn't need to take out a loan to fill up the family truckster.

I'm concerned. If this keeps up Exxon will only make 9.8 billion this quarter.

Nov 4, 2005 4:13 pm

[quote=tjc45]

I'm concerned. If this keeps up Exxon will only make 9.8 billion this quarter.

[/quote]

That would be terrible, as it would make their ROE much lower than average for the market. I wonder why they didn't use their "set the price of oil" gun to increase the price? Are they trying to go back to the days when they weren't making money?  

Nov 4, 2005 4:41 pm

Try $3.09 for Premium in California. I feel like I am getting $ss raped every time I pull into a gas station.

Nov 4, 2005 5:16 pm

$1.97 here.

Nov 4, 2005 5:35 pm

[quote=blarmston]Try $3.09 for Premium in California. I feel like I am getting $ss raped every time I pull into a gas station.[/quote]

You can thank the EPA (special blend gas, which thankfully is going away) and California state taxes for that.

Nov 4, 2005 7:13 pm

Yikes.  Just paid $1.99 (thank God).  It’s sad to think that you almost have to take out a second mortgage to pay for gas.

Nov 4, 2005 8:10 pm

Tell me about it.  I'm in California and our premium is still 3.20 a gallon here (rural area).  My husband's business requires that he have two work trucks and drives many miles every day.  We have been filling his tanks at least twice a week to the tune of at minimum $100 a week in gasoline.  Eeek.  At least he can raise his rates somewhat to compensate for the increased costs.

And they say the cost of oil isn't affecting inflation.  Right.   Tell that to the trucking companies who have pre set contracts to haul and can't raise their rates.  I have one trucking company client who said he was considering just quiting the business entirely when this contract was up and selling his trucks at auction.

Nov 4, 2005 11:08 pm

1.96 for gas in western VA… AWESOME!!! If VT or Virginia Tech wins then it might drop to 1.50 a gallon… I paid 2.17 for premium… Back to the north soon where gas is .60 cents more.

Nov 5, 2005 4:06 am

[quote=tjc45]

I'm concerned. If this keeps up Exxon will only make 9.8 billion this quarter.

[/quote]

Did anyone else figure out that that works out to over $100 million a day of net profits?  How many tech companies have made $100 million ever?  How much does Google make? 

Nov 7, 2005 2:52 pm

[quote=babbling looney]

And they say the cost of oil isn't affecting inflation.  Right.   Tell that to the trucking companies who have pre set contracts to haul and can't raise their rates.  I have one trucking company client who said he was considering just quiting the business entirely when this contract was up and selling his trucks at auction.

[/quote]

Don't most trucking companies charge threir customers a fuel surcharge to cover the increased fuel cost?

Nov 7, 2005 3:35 pm

tjc45, I don't know, but I think you are right.  I'm not too familiar with trucking companies.  But my client is a small mom & pop type truck company hauling agricultural products for other small businesses.  From what I gathered they write a contract at the beginning of the year with a set fee, probably with a surcharge clause but even so, the rise in the cost of diesel and maintence has eroded their profit margins.  Combine that with the extremely high cost of workers comp in Calif, and rising insurance costs.  My client said he was throwing in the towel.

It is just that the rise in fuel costs tipped him over. I imagine that he is not an isolated scenario.  As I said my spouse can raise his fees/rates to compensate and cut back or consolidate calls on clients, but you can only raise your rates so much until "your" services are also deemed not needed by your clients.   To minimize the impact that sustained higher fuel costs have on the economy seems to me to be very foolish.  How can it be said that fuel costs aren't causing inflation? The surcharge passes on to the agricultural producer is passed on to the processor of the product, to the guy who hauls the product to the grocery store and then to you and I when we go shopping.

Nov 7, 2005 4:14 pm

[quote=Soothsayer][quote=tjc45]

I'm concerned. If this keeps up Exxon will only make 9.8 billion this quarter.

[/quote]

Did anyone else figure out that that works out to over $100 million a day of net profits?  How many tech companies have made $100 million ever?  How much does Google make? 

[/quote]

To my knowledge there is not a technology company (Google included) that is as capital intensive as the oil business. That's why it seems to me that ROE (which in the oil business is at or below the market average) is a better indicator of profit rate than pure profit numbers.

I suspect the people most upset with current oil company profits won't be rushing to bail oil companies out when they go thru their next bust phase of the bust/boom nature of the oil business as they did on the 1980s and the mid-1990s.