bigsinky

just read they are triple what they were this time last year. $5BN is obscene. SUL in Belfast @ 149.9

JPL

There are two parts to oil companies, upstream and downstream.

Upstream research, drill the holes and "make" the fuels. The upstream business make a fortune selling the various products on to the retail markets (i.e. themselves or Tesco) at the going rate.

The downstream business is the retail market, the downstream market is extremely tight and doesn't turn much of a profit, some would argue that the only reason some of the major oil companies still have petrol stations is for brand awareness.

RobsyUK

iTrader: (2)

BP only have 300stations across the UK (i think) and they make most of their money from confectionary.....fuel in this **** hole is mostly tax so we can't really complain...

CrisPDuk

Everyone goes on about the 'obscene' profits that oil companies make, but when looked at in terms of turnover they are actually quite minimal.
The average corner shop has a better profit margin, maybe we should be berating them

Chip

And nearly all that money gets filtered back into the enconomy someway or other. We should celebrate success not whinge about it.

Chip

Ciaran

iTrader: (16)

Think about the fact that clean up the gulf last year cost them over $10B they had as collateral. They are a sucessful company and as said above the spend alot of money to make alot of money. They take the risks and reep the rewards.
70% of the fuel cost if not more is tax!!

I do work in the industry so understand these companies spend alot of money on R&D and sometime loose.....company I work for lost $112m dollars last year taking "risks" has paid of this year and they made $200m first 1Q