I heard that oil companies are not doing well....

[Sarah Ibarruri]

Is this real? I mean, please, don't tell me the same oil companies that have been making astronomical profits are suddenly not doing well. Somebody please explain this before I end up thinking the past few decades have consisted only of the rich stealing from the rest.

[lapfog_1]

1. What makes you think

that it was only the past few decades?

[Sarah Ibarruri]

6. You're right. This has been going on for a long time. nt

[Cleita]

2. Don't tell me that Bush and Cheney got their finger in the till with them too? n/t

[Sarah Ibarruri]

5. Exactly. I just wish Bush and Cheney were behind bars nt

[Coyote_Bandit]

3. Some of the small independent oil producers

are hurting. They barely eek by when oil drops below $50 a barrel or so and a lot of them took on new development and drilling costs when oil prices were high that they have not yet recouped. Now they are pumping wells that barely recoup their own costs. These small producers do not benefit from the economies of scale that the large producers do.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

4. Ok thanks. Same story always with the little guy. nt

[Coyote_Bandit]

7. I didn't mention it

but some of these small producers were also hurt by the SemGroup fiasco. Some of them lost a buyer. Some of them were owed large sums of money which will eventually be paid as pennies on the dollar in bankruptcy court.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

9. Thanks :( It's all interconnected and what a mess they've made of it for the rest of us nt

[4lbs]

8. Get all the 'cheap' gas (relatively) while you can. $50 to $60 a barrel oil and (less than) $2.00

a gallon gas won't last but a few months.

It will jump up to $80 to $100 barrel by Summer 2009 again. That's about $3.00 a gallon gas again.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

10. Well, my car will only accept so much

And also, I heard that low gas prices aren't a good thing either - deflation?

[4lbs]

11. I remember when oil plummeted to $12 a barrel and gas was barely over $1.00 a gallon.

That's also when sales of gas guzzling SUV and trucks skyrocketed. At $1.10 per gallon for gas, many people didn't seem to care that their SUV/truck got only 12 to 14 mpg city.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

15. I hope people don't ever start with the Hummers and SUVs again! nt

[golddigger]

12. What! You don't have a tanker truck to hold all your gas while it's cheap?

:rofl:

[Sarah Ibarruri]

14. :-) No! And I have a tiny car anyway :-) nt

[BR_Parkway]

13. Well, if they only make $10 billion profit this quarter instead of $11 billion

they could be said to be doing very poorly compared to last quarter indeed.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

16. That's true lol nt