Oil refiners exploited the crisis': Report shows oil refiners are gouging California drivers (statistics, suspected)

[joosoon]

Originally Posted by WRM20

A much bigger driver for not going all out on drilling s the desire to not lose a huge pile of money again the next time prices drop off a cliff. The last time that happened, ExxonMobil lost $20 billion. That scares shareholders, and scared shareholders creates scared management.

Oh noes. Rich people are scared they will only be slightly more rich? We can't have that now can we.

[MKTwet]

Originally Posted by vincenze

It's unimaginable that a filthy homeless person would be allowed to enter a subway in Japan or China, and pee and poop.
Subway trains in LA are full of them.

Unfortunately in our country we have too many societal problems that aren’t being addressed the right way.

[CaliforniaGal]

Originally Posted by WRM20

There are 14 or 15 refineries in California, according to the State.

https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/resources/doc...nia-refineries

https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-repor...oil-refineries

My husband assists the oil tanker ships that come into El Segundo, CA (Chevron) and as I mentioned above, Richmond Chevron Refinery was down for maintenance as has others, Right now, they are busy as my husband is out there working. Shipping is busy. Diesel is being made by the way.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by joosoon

Imagine doing a run to Costco via public transportation.
No thanks.

A case of paper towels on the bus lolz

[albert648]

Originally Posted by joosoon

Oh noes. Rich people are scared they will only be slightly more rich? We can't have that now can we.

I don't see YOU investing billions of dollars of YOUR money developing oil wells only to have the government tax and regulate you out of business or to have the bottom fall out of the market and for you to lose your shirt.

And btw, plenty of retail investors own XOM shares and they sure as hell also don't like losing money.

[TMSRetired]

Sorry to say California did it to themselves with their "special" gas.

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by TMSRetired

Sorry to say California did it to themselves with their "special" gas.

The so called special gas is one reason that large California cities have days where the air is almost clear. The state doesn't really have a choice but to use gas that pollutes less.

[TMSRetired]

Originally Posted by WRM20

The so called special gas is one reason that large California cities have days where the air is almost clear. The state doesn't really have a choice but to use gas that pollutes less.

I'm not saying it's bad; but it's because they need special gas that the price is so high especially now in an inflationary period along with Biden's EO's against the oil industry.

[Mathguy]

Originally Posted by sav858

No surprise here, this happens all the time, the CA surcharge never came down after some refinery explosion in SoCal a couple of years ago. They'll probably keep prices high forever now because they know none of our politicians will do anything. Case in point, Newsom and his empty promise to "investigate" CA's unusually high prices over 18 months ago.

Oil refiners exploited the crisis': Report shows oil refiners are gouging California drivers

A recent investor profits report shows that California oil refiners are gouging Californians as they earn more than double the number of other refiners.

According to Consumer Watchdog, in the first quarter of 2022, some California refiners earned more than twice as those reported by the same refiners in other regions and as much as five times more than in the first quarter of 2021.

"These profit reports show the Golden State Gouge is real. Oil refiners exploited the crisis in Ukraine to make a mint from California drivers," said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog.

A couple things.

1) Supply and Demand. When a refinery goes unexpectedly off-line and supply is strained, prices increase. Especially true due to CA's special blend.

2) Gross profits are being used, given CA's penchant for taxation and other fees etc. I'd be leery about comparing gross profits to other states.

3) Capital investment. The specialized equipment, land cost etc. can all lead to higher profit requirements. For example, if your gas station cost $2mil to build and mine only $1mil you need to make twice my profits to produce the same return.

CA prides itself of a lot of environmental stuff and that's not always *free*. They add a lot of cost to things via tax, special rules etc. so I'm leery when politicians (and their allies) try to pass the buck for their programs.

[albert648]

Originally Posted by Mathguy

A couple things.

1) Supply and Demand. When a refinery goes unexpectedly off-line and supply is strained, prices increase. Especially true due to CA's special blend.

2) Gross profits are being used, given CA's penchant for taxation and other fees etc. I'd be leery about comparing gross profits to other states.

3) Capital investment. The specialized equipment, land cost etc. can all lead to higher profit requirements. For example, if your gas station cost $2mil to build and mine only $1mil you need to make twice my profits to produce the same return.

CA prides itself of a lot of environmental stuff and that's not always *free*. They add a lot of cost to things via tax, special rules etc. so I'm leery when politicians (and their allies) try to pass the buck for their programs.

Not to mention the fact that this super duper special expensive blend of gasoline can only be competitively sold in California because it's the only place someone would actually buy it (because it's too expensive anywhere else).

CAPEX spread over fewer units of production and fewer units sold = Higher fixed cost. Turns out gasoline sold to 40 million people is more expensive per unit than gasoline sold to hundreds of millions of people by nature of fixed costs that cannot be avoided by virtue of producing that product.

This is LITERALLY economics 101. Economies of scale etc.