Skoobie Dhu

iTrader: (3)

Following on from the thread about Shell and BP making $7 billion profit per quarter and some posters felt the Oil Companies were ripping off the UK motorists.

I've dug through the BP results for the Qtr and found that BP made $107 million profit (before tax) from their refining and marketing in the UK - this is the sector that makes profit from fuel refining and marketing. In the grand scheme of $7 billion, $107 million (£50 million) is a bit of a drop in the ocean.

How much of the refining and marketing business is motor fuel profit I'm not sure but I'd suspect it'll be something like 20 or 30%.

After looking at the figures I'm not sure why the likes of Shell and BP bother selling fuel in the UK - they probably make more profit from the shops on their forecourts.

I think there's more scope for the goverment to reduce the tax on fuel - bear in mind the government have already taxed the oil as the oil co's have produced it - then they tax it again once refined and sold to us motorists.

SirFozzalot

A large proportion of the profits come from exploration and recovery rather than refining.

I don't think BP have anymore refineries in the UK any more, they have sold them all.

A few years ago Shell sold most of it's forecourts to Texaco for the same reasons, there really isn't that much profit in it compared to the rest of the oil business.

PeteBrant

I'l be the first to say that the fuel companies should ease the pressure on the high street. But....

Last year BP had a turnover of $284 Billion with a profit of $19 billion. That's a profit of 6.6% which in business terms, is not brilliant by any stretch.

Isolated, $19billion profit seems like an gargantuan sum of money to make, but when taken in the perspective of the overall turnover - it's not nearly as obscene as it appears.

To put it in perspecctive. How would you feel about having a business that had a yearly turnover of £100,000 - but you earnt £6,600 from it?

Shark Man

The oil companies would do the UK public a favour if they really showed how little income they make from uk forecourts by shutting them all. That really would make the politicians squirm.

Globally they make billions, and its that global income that is making up from the shortcomings of the profitabilty on uk fuel.

PeteBrant

I don't think that Government reduction on fel duty and VAT is the solution.

We are running at a budget defecit of £43billion. So it's not like we have the scope to reduce it.

If the duty on fuel is reduced, then that money has to be made up somewhere else.

If it comes from anywhere, it's got to come from the oil companies. Harsh as that may seem.

Shark Man

We could always sell our gold reserves.....

oh...

b*gger :

Sonic'

And petrol on the forecourt has gone up yet again this evening, it seems that the price goes up by a few pence every couple of days now

paid 110.9 for 95 ron unleaded earlier

little-ginge

Changed my car to diesel thinking it was a better option.. seen it rise from 107.9 to 122.9 in the last 12-15 months

Didnt some one post on here last week that they sell petrol and that diesel would by 100p by this week? Unless I read the post wrong, this def. hasn't happened - in fact it's still going up!

Shark Man

Filled up today : 109.9 for 95 Ron at Tesco...owch.

I wouldn't mind paying that much if I actually enjoyed driving my current 22.3mpg POS

Sonic'

Same here SM, Im driving a 3.0 V6 1994 Shogun so if im lucky 25 quid will get me about 85 miles, if im incredibly lucky I might see 105 miles for 25 quid

And diesel round here now is about 125

fatherpierre

Thankfully the only fuel I pay for is for pleasure and shopping

I saw derv @ £1.29.9 today in London - kin ell.

Still no less cars, taxis, trucks etc. on the roads though, so we must be able to afford it.

Tam the bam

Diesel will be around £1.50 a litre by August this year However you can now legally run a Diesel car on renewable Biofuel, like cooking oil providing you give the government 23p in tax for every litre you use So if you buy four litres of oil to fry your chips in then put in your fuel tank, you'll need to pay the scum 92p to put it in your tank, or stick it in your wheelie bin (in a lemonade bottle) for free... Just goes to show what a farce all this go green sh!te really is..

little-ginge

I just went back and found the post I was referring to..

yes it does say by this time next week it will be 100p per litre... only it was an old thread resurfacing from 2005

And there was me hoping my truck wouldn't cost £80 to fill up

little-ginge

TtB

Tam the bam

lg

CrisPDuk

Here's an idea Pete, if we cut the vast amounts of cash being p!ssed away on council estates full of workshy scum, we could reduce the duty on fuel and the budget deficit together

Bu66er, just thought, if Gordon cuts their dole, they won't vote for him will they

PeteBrant

Let's not go down that road, eh

Turbo2

Not exactly news, but a sobering reminder of what's going on here:

I remember attending the Aberdeen Offshore oil trade show about 10 years ago. There was a seminar being held for the oil barons called something like "How to survive and prosper with the sub $10 per barrel oil price".

They were still making money back then. They now get nearly 12x that amount of money for doing pretty much the same work. Curiously not many people's wages have gone up 12x in the same 10 year period.

Are they taking the p*ss? What do you think?

lordretsudo

The (oil) company I work for laid off quite a lot of staff during that period, and have only recently (last 2 years) got back to the sort of staff levels they had prior to it. It seems ridiculous now that the price could ever have been so low, given oil's finite availability.

I must say there's been quite a bit of grumbling at my site over how little of the huge profit is getting passed on to staff. We do get an annual bonus, and are getting a 5% pay rise this year, but apparently the average wage over the entire company is £60,000. There aren't many people at my site on that, I can tell you

Smatt

The profits that are made on fuel by the oil companies are so minimal.
If shell were to remove there profit margin per litre you wouldn't hardly notice it. It is literally a couple of pence per litre.
The figures on a £1.10 litre are roughly as follows.
8.5p to the retailer (Petrol station)
35.5p to get find where it is, get it out of the ground, ship it to a refinery & turn it into fuel
51p Fuel duty
Total 94p per litre

Then the f##kers put VAT on the whole lot @ 17.5%

Total £1.10 (approx)

What eats me is that they tax a tax.

Yes the Labour scum postponed the 2p rise in duty, but since that rise was in last years budget, fuel has risen from 90p to £1.10.
Vat on 20p is 3.5p. They have probably got there 2p in the last month the way it has risen.

mart360

Why has the gap between petrol & diesel suddenly doubled?

for years it was always 5p a litre difference, now it's 10-11p difference?

Unfortunately were always going to pay for our fuel, its a cash cow and the govstapo know it.

how long now before we some blockades?

just to heap a bit more misery on that lot

mart

PeteBrant

The trouble is that you cannot base any future VAT revenue from fuel base don the price today. A barrel of oil is expensive , mainly due to the lweak dollar - People are investing in commodities rather than currency, thus pushing up the price (same has happened with gold). When the dollar regains strength, which it will at some point, the price of oil will reduce.

Smatt

I'm sorry but I have to disagree. When the dollar gains strength & the price should come down, the Rag Head Cartel, oops I mean OPEC!!, will reduce production to keep the prices high.
They have been doing it for the last few years & don't expect anything other.

Civilised man found it, started getting it out of the ground & then we handed it over them.
Now the f##kers rip us off.
We should have left them wandering the deserts following a few goats.

mamoon2

Leslie

Why not Pete, its a perfectly fair point by CrispDuk. Or is that too difficult for you to justify anyway?

Les