$104 and Change!

So on the day after the “Big Oil” executives were called once again before Congress to vindicate the outrageous profits garnished from the working class in efforts for us to get back and forth from work, oil hit another all time high - $104.83 per barrel. And why does this hearing always take place on April 1st? I guess it is best described as an “April Fool’s Joke”. OK, so the military uses a horrendous amount of jet fuel, something you and I pay for. With a protracted war going on, fuel is a necessity over a luxury for the flying fighter pilots. When wartime is a thing of the past, pilots practice and patrol no-fly zones, so it costs fuel for that exercise only. When a war is going on, practice makes perfect and the taxpayers get caught in a double jeopardy garnishment. We pay for the practice sessions and the wartime efforts at the same time. Fuel use doubles during wartime. Couple that with fuel prices doubled, the numbers speak for themselves. It boils down to double-up double digit dipping, again it hurts my Treasury’s surplus! What surplus? Anyway, like again and again more of the same, Congress has no teeth when it comes to harassing a corporation's big profit margins. It is really the other way around, as it seems the corporate devils have no sympathy and give it right back to the hearing committee, without any repercussion. And I would bet, like again and again, they were allowed to testify “Not” under any oath to tell nothing but the truth. Last year when this same scenario unfolded, Ted Stevens – at the time head of the committee investigating outrageous energy costs to the consumers – he went “hulk” like upset when other senators requested that the hearings be conducted with the testifiers under oath. It didn’t happen and it was a great day for the 5th Amendment. Really, the executives answered nothing. And when they are required to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, the “truth” takes a turn for the worse. Anyway, I worked the oil patch for many years here in Alaska, in the capacity as an oil measurements specialist. Basically, I was responsible for accounting for every drop of oil that entered the Trans-Alaska-Pipeline. Every drop counted, even when the pipeline was accepting well over 2-millions barrels of crude oil in a 24-hour period, as no producer was willing to get shorted. That was during the time that crude oil was pretty stable at about $18.00 dollars a barrel. Now I must admit that I had the luxury of utilizing Phineas J. Whoopee’s magical 3D BB to figure out what that $18 really amounted to, with respect to what an oil company gains from exploring then exploiting then having that barrel get refined into motor gasoline. Just how much money does that $18 make or break for an oil company? So here it is in a nutshell. A barrel of crude oil equates volume wise to 42-gallons of crude oil, unrefined crap basically. It can’t be used for anything, except polluting beaches. Anyway, once that barrel makes it to a refinery, all hell breaks loose with the crack addict teams. Take 42-gallons of crude oil through a journey of a modern day refinery and here is what you end up with, product wise. Modern day refining and hydro-cracking can take that 42-gallons and without haste or waste make 70-gallons of refined gasoline – a 1.68 gain factor! So when crude oil was costing a refinery that meager amount of $18-dollars delivered to the front gate, when done with it could bring in easily $188 dollars of gross profit, for what started out as 1-barrel! Take that minus the cost of the oil plus the other incidental costs, $150 dollars of pure net profit. And for these “Big Oil” giants, that cost of crude oil per barrel is just a myth. Why? First, they most likely own their own refineries. Secondly, field production costs are pretty much the same for aging fields. Maybe production is down a little bit, but it becomes a cash cow! So from when the cost was $18 dollars a barrel to the present all time record breaking, breaking my wallet, it is basically the same - $18 dollars, no more, no less. See, crude oil is very friendly to the refining process. First, the light hydrocarbon constituents are boiled off, like the propanes and ethanes. That stuff is used to energize the refining process. So it means dirt cheap fuel for the process. Next, the natural gasoline is skimmed off the crude, like cream off of fresh milk. Then the other stuff is converted into gasoline, by the cracking process. In the end, it all becomes gasoline and what wasn’t converted used to drive the process. It means a very efficient process that is automated and requires a minimum of manpower. The truck deliveries are probably the most expensive attribute of this stuff we need in efforts to get to work, to survive. So “Big Oil” makes one hell of a profit when one sees the “Big Oink Picture”. To make a point, one doesn’t need a special Congressional hearing to figure out how much “Big Oil” is making these days, it is a very simple equation of rape. With today’s inflationary factors, a barrel of crude oil is fetching easily $250-dollars pure profit. I will simplify it for you. In terms of a gallon of gasoline, you pay say $3.50 a gallon, while “Big Oil” puts $2.58 worth of profits into a retirement account for its shareholders! But there is an out for “Big Oil”. They blame it on the cost of crude oil. As that commodity gets worn out and resources dwindle, they go along with it as it in no way shape or form hurts their bottom line. They were smart and devised an infrastructure that could take advantage of price increases along with price decreases. Right now, they are making out big time. And because of the present day energy quagmire, they stand to continue making humongous profits and there isn’t a damn thing anybody in Congress can do about it. In fact, Congress would be better off exercising the 5th Amendment, as they know the answers but hold these hearings to pacify their constituents and we hear the same damn thing, over and over again. No results, no nothing except more excuses. What a return on their investment they get, the politicians I am talking about. They protect the lobbyist first, then the big campaign contributors and somewhere along that trickle down slime line are the peoples’ concerns. Remember, by the people and for the people! Just what the hell is that all about? So remember “Big Oil” simple economics the next time at the pump as it costs you twice as much to fill that tank, and remember, they love every drop of it!

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