somethingfunny wrote:You know, I did the math once: Here in Denison I was still able to get gas at $3.97 when oil was at $145+ per 40-gallon barrell. That's an oil price of $3.62/gallon.
Therefore, gasoline only costs about $0.35 cents per gallon to ship, refine, transport, pay gasoline taxes, and pass along massive profits to Exxon's shareholders. The rest goes to the Saudis, the Russians, the Iranians, and the rest of the hands that feed us, and the oil speculators on Wall Street who feed them.
Not exactly. gasoline is only one of many products refined from oil. It's also one of the cheapest. The reason gas is as cheap as it is is that the other distillates are much much more expensive. Just for a comparison, I use a lot of epoxy resin in my business, which is a petroleum distillate. It runs wholesale about $1.50 per pound, or $12 per gallon.
The cheapest petroleum distillates are diesel fuel, bunker fuel (really thick diesel oil used by big ships), and asphalt.