[shortonoil]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')ay 19 (Bloomberg) -- Take away Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips and profits at U.S. companies are the worst in at least a decade.

Without the $70 billion that oil producers earned in the last two quarters, profits at companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index tumbled 26 percent and 30.2 percent, the biggest decreases for any quarter since Bloomberg started compiling data in 1998. Energy companies made up almost half the income growth reported by S&P 500 companies in the first three months of 2008 as oil prices surged past $100 per barrel, the data show.

[vision-master]

http://www.peakoil.com/fortopic40015.html

[pup55]

These big integrated oil companies have a lot of problems keeping the whole system together. The biggest problem is that they have to be so giant to keep the whole thing running more or less efficiently that they cannot earn enough money to keep their stockholders from unloading the whole thing and investing in Google.

If the reinvestment economics in this business are not high enough, they won't do the investment. We all know what that means: higher prices, or even worse, people like Saudi who do not have the same cost structure or investment goals will end up dominating the entire supply chain.

So ultimately the pricing situation is going to get even worse.

[shortonoil]

pup55 said:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')f the reinvestment economics in this business are not high enough, they won't do the investment.

[mark]

A very misleading headline.

It's not oil company profits that are falling, it's the rest of the S & P 500, excluding oil companies, whose profit is falling. The oil companies are doing fine. Even though cost are rising, so is the price of a barrel of oil.

[RSB]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mark', 'A') very misleading headline.

It's not oil company profits that are falling, it's the rest of the S & P 500, excluding oil companies, whose profit is falling. The oil companies are doing fine. Even though cost are rising, so is the price of a barrel of oil.

[joeltrout]

Very misleading title. And we wonder why people think we are wackos.

Oil companies, especially independents and family-owned, are making extremely high profits. Companies that own refining entities are making less but even then their production is generating a lot of return.

Most of the companies in the US operate small fields mostly dotted with stripper wells that do not require a lot of work therefore do not have a lot of expenses like big projects do. Many are making almost pure profit because the fields have been HBP for over 20+ years.

Exxon, Chevron, etc... are not all the oil companies. There are thousands of oil companies in the US.

joeltrout

[Aaron]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('RSB', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mark', 'A') very misleading headline.

It's not oil company profits that are falling, it's the rest of the S & P 500, excluding oil companies, whose profit is falling. The oil companies are doing fine. Even though cost are rising, so is the price of a barrel of oil.

[bodigami]

The title should be edited.

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('shortonoil', 'E')ven though there are record high prices, we are not seeing comparable reinvestment in E&D.

[TheDude]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('joeltrout', 'M')any are making almost pure profit because the fields have been HBP for over 20+ years.

[joeltrout]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TheDude', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('joeltrout', 'M')any are making almost pure profit because the fields have been HBP for over 20+ years.

[shortonoil]

LOL: That title was suppose to be “Oil Companies Profits Rising, Margins Falling Like a Rock
Rising, Margins got lost - sorry!

Bloomberg
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he cost to find and develop a barrel of oil quadrupled to $18 last year from $4 in 2000.