‘It’s a blowout.” No, silly — not the tire on your car.
“It’s a blowout,” said a Wall Street money expert about Exxon Mobil’s second- quarter oil profits.
You want to hear something crazy? Exxon Mobil makes all those profits even though they refined less gasoline in the second quarter. And just how much did they rip us off for in the months of April, May and June? Let’s take a look.
How does the number $10.36 billion grab your gut? (That’s $10,360,000,000.)
That is $79,059.83 for every minute of every hour of every day for three months! And that is in addition to the $64,000 per minute they raked in for January, February and March. Just think. What if each of these profit-minutes could be used for scientific research to help humanity?
Are you angry at these profits? Wall Street says the second half of 2006 will “best” the first half.
Please don’t pick on poor Exxon Mobil for their second quarter profits. Look at the other gluttons: Shell — $7.32 billion; BP — $7.30 billion; Conoco-Phillips — $5.1 billion; Chevron — $4.35 billion. The total for the five oil giants is $34.43 billion. That comes to $262,744.20 for every minute of every hour of every day for April, May and June. Isn’t this why they want to fight wars in the Middle East?
Whose fault is it that we have such outrageous profiteering? Why, it’s the other guys — India, China, they say. That’s who’s using the oil, they say. That’s who’s forcing up prices, they say. Forcing up prices? Baloney. It costs an average of $2.50 per barrel to extract oil. This includes oil from here, the Middle East, shale rock, etc.
George W. Bush’ new treasury secretary Henry Paulson says it’s China. So it must be right — right?
High oil prices are well on the way to wrecking the economy. Evidence of this process shows up in economic reports every day.
Add insult to injury, salt to the wound? Dick Cheney’s Halliburton Company made record profits. It is the second largest oil industry servicing company in the U.S.
Had enough? Do something. Act now.
• Make oil profiteering an issue in your congressional election campaign Nov. 7.
• Demand oil profits be seized and used for mass transit.
• Help start a boycott of one oil company. Boycotts work.
It’s time to nationalize the oil industry as in other countries.
Pat Barile (pbarile@cpusa.org) is a member of the National Board of the Communist Party USA.
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