philly

Those evil oil companies made out big time (yet again) last quarter. Through the roof profits are pouring in like it's a monsoon of moolah:

• Chevron: $5.17B – 10% increase [source]
• BP: $7.62B profit – 63% increase [source]
• Shell: $9.08B profit – 25% increase [source]
• Exxon-Mobil: $10.9B – 15% increase [source]

At this time last year, oil was selling, on average, for $58/barrel. Now, it's $100 [source].

In the United States, the political attention has been increasingly focusing on the impact of high energy costs on the economy and on pocketbooks. The Senate blocked a $15 billion extra tax on oil companies late last year but calls for a windfall profit tax are likely to re-emerge this year.

I'd say that it's pretty fucking likely that the windfall profit tax is unlikely to pass. And on the slight chance that it does pass, the oil execs will first wipe their asses on the check before handing it over.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 2nd, 2008 @ 11:41 am. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or trackback from your own site. Your comments will be moderated [if you have never previously commented] but will appear as soon as humanly possible.