Who gets all the oil money?

This is something I’ve been thinking about for some time now. They keep increasing the price of oil as if there is no tomorrow. People all over the world are badly affected, but the governments or authorities do not seem to be doing anything about it. Yes, they do talk about reducing tax, and increasing price and stuff… But why isn’t anyone actually wondering why this is happening? This is something I am going to do some research on.

The price for one barrel of crude oil is $140 as of today. This price is decided by the futures markets in New York and London. The oil companies are all posting record profits. Why should people have to pay more for petrol just for increasing the profit of a few oil companies? Why is this not properly regulated? Why are they not thinking about a different pricing strategy so that people don’t have to pay obscenely high prices to maintain the oil companies’ profits?

The following is a rough split up of where the oil money goes (March 2008):

 

4% - Those who transport the fuel

4% - Those who sell it on the retail side

8% - Those who refine crude oil into fuel

12% - To Government as tax

72% - Those who provide the crude oil (The oil companies)

 

Now, we will see the costs and revenues (According to BP):

 

Price of a barrel of crude oil - $110 (Q1 2008).

Average cost of a barrel - $20

Average earnings from a barrel - $91

 

Most of these record profits are distributed among the shareholders, and the rest of the money is pooled in again to find more sources of oil. A meager percentage is spent to fund research on alternative sources of energy.

What do I infer from all this? The oil money goes to the shareholders of the oil companies and they become even more rich and powerful. With their power and influence, they will do whatever it takes, to ensure that this steady flow of money never dries up.