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Big Oil Profits * USA - Steered to investors
The percentage of money the major oil companies spend to find new deposits of fossil fuels has remained flat for years, in the mid-single digits
Houston,TX,USA -The Associated Press/The Trucker, by JOHN PORRETTO -22 July 2008: -- As giant oil companies like Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips get set to report what will probably be another round of eye-popping quarterly profits, just where is all that money going?... The companies insist they’re trying to find new oil that might help bring down gas prices, but the money they spend on exploration is nothing compared with what they spend on stock buybacks and dividends... It’s good news for shareholders, including mutual funds and retirement plans for millions of Americans, but no help to drivers already making drastic cutbacks to offset the high cost of fuel... The five biggest international oil companies plowed about 55 percent of the cash they made from their businesses into stock buybacks and dividends last year, up from 30 percent in 2000 and just 1 percent in 1993, according to Rice University’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy... In Washington, one Democratic proposal would impose a 25 percent tax on “unreasonable” profits of the top five oil companies, which together made more than $120 billion in 2007, and put the money toward a trust fund for investment in alternative energy sources. Republicans say it’s a gimmick that won’t help at the pump and will discourage domestic oil production... But Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said the fervor for stock buybacks is a clear sign Big Oil isn’t interested in new production or alternative energy... “When you hear that,” he said, “it screams out for a windfall profits tax.” ... (Photo: The percentage of money the major oil companies spend to find new deposits of fossil fuels has remained flat for years, in the mid-single digits)Labels: oil profits
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