After a year of seeing gas prices explode to unprecedented levels, it looks like they're going to fall off - sharply. In a report issued by many top oil company executives, gas prices could continue falling. Ironically, this news comes on the tail of a series of public service announcements instructing the public to curtail oil and gas usage until the shortages experienced as a result of hurricanes Katrina and Rita are replenished. Kinda ironic, huh?
For those who can remember back a further than a couple of decades, when prices have reached all time highs, the periods were followed by production gluts and significantly cheaper gas prices. During these periods, oil companies complained of their losses, begging for sympathy, suggesting federal assistance in some cases.
So, if prices continue falling, keep this in mind: Just a month or so ago, oil executives from Shell, Exxon-Mobil, BP, Chevron and others all boasted their record profits in the neighborhood of 250-300%. Maybe it's just me, but it's hard to feel sorry for the those who orchestrated their own good fortune.
Of course, all I can think about is that I sold the stock I had in an oil company in March of this year - just as the prices really began to take off. Perfect timing, huh?
I wonder in a few months if any of the same executives might be wondering if they should have run those "save gas" public service announcements in the first place.
2 comments:
i wonder if those profits for oil co's actually came out of doing good for american consumers. because they hiked gas prices so high, enough people stayed away from the pumps, ensuring we didn't run out of gas at stations. people figured, 'well, i can go another two or three days if i'm careful' rather than just filling up when the tank reads between half a tank and a quarter tank.
never thought i'd say this, but maybe big oil did us all a favor. you can imagine the rancor that would've ensued had news of outages begun popping up.
bottom line: if you can make a profit doing good for people, more power to you. (man! i AM turning into a real republican, aren't i?)
Yeah, I know. They would have been chastised had we run out. Now they're disdained because they made so much off of us.
By the way, I got my last little tidbit from Kerr-McGee on Thursday. It was a final payout for stock left in my 401k.
I held on as long as I could.
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