I love Phil Davis. He speaks truth.
Here is an excerpt of what he wrote this morning.
The last paragraph is about water. The first several are about oil and gasoline and the criminal refiners.
The whole article is linked.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/36555
OPEC (and, as ZMan points out, the "C" stands for Cartel) stepped in to stop yesterdayâs 2.4% drop in crude by indicating they would not be increasing output this summer. They rightfully pointed out that the real cartel at work here are the US refiners, who now mark up a barrel of oil 162% by the time itâs sold at the pump. Since OPEC nations do indeed incur some very real costs pulling oil out of the ground (letâs say $20 per barrel) and since a refined barrel of crude was recently (pre-Bush) available for just $42 per barrel ($1 per gallon at the pump), one could infer that $126 per barrel of the $168 per barrel we pay (at $4) falls under the the heading of "windfall profits."
From OPECâs perspective, why do anything to decrease the cost of oil they sell to the Presidentâs largest campaign contributors when all they do is use it to increase their margins? No drop in oil since Fall â05 has led to a drop in gasoline prices, as more than 10% of the nationâs refining capacity has been kept off-line for almost the entire last 18 months. While the refineries burn or get taken down for maintenance, Valero Energy Corp. (VLO) (for example) bought back over $2B of its own stock while spending little enough on that maintenance (and fire prevention) to keep its average operating cost per barrel down to just $4 (I kid you not!).
I have this same issue with Nigeria, where six more hostages were taken this morning, this time seizing six construction workers on a boat. This brings the count up to 200 foreign workers and 100 kidnapping incidents this year (once every 1.4 days on average) that has cut Nigeriaâs oil production by 1/3, which is 800,000 barrels a day at $60 per barrel or $48M per day that is not being spent ON A FRIGGINâ SECURITY GUARD! COME ON PEOPLE - THIS IS A TOTAL SCAM AND WE FALL FOR IT EVERY 1.4 DAYS!
Only by distracting you with non-stop fear and terror from Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, Hurricanes, etc. can the oil criminals get away with charging you four times more for the same amount of gas (within 3%) that we consumed when gas was under $1 per gallon.
Anyway, thatâs more of a weekend topic, but itâs a holiday and youâll be sending Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) almost $10 in operating income every time you fill up your tank. So I figure itâs good to have something to think about - this is another topic you can forward to your Congressmen (including state and local) in our continuing series aimed at putting a stop to this nonsense.
Keep in mind that CNBC Fast Moneyâs" Eric Bolling and other energy traders are licking their chops to get into the $400B water business, just another place where they can squeeze the life out of you by taking over a vital resource and then creating a series of "crises" to triple their profits.
Here is an excerpt of what he wrote this morning.
The last paragraph is about water. The first several are about oil and gasoline and the criminal refiners.
The whole article is linked.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/36555
OPEC (and, as ZMan points out, the "C" stands for Cartel) stepped in to stop yesterdayâs 2.4% drop in crude by indicating they would not be increasing output this summer. They rightfully pointed out that the real cartel at work here are the US refiners, who now mark up a barrel of oil 162% by the time itâs sold at the pump. Since OPEC nations do indeed incur some very real costs pulling oil out of the ground (letâs say $20 per barrel) and since a refined barrel of crude was recently (pre-Bush) available for just $42 per barrel ($1 per gallon at the pump), one could infer that $126 per barrel of the $168 per barrel we pay (at $4) falls under the the heading of "windfall profits."
From OPECâs perspective, why do anything to decrease the cost of oil they sell to the Presidentâs largest campaign contributors when all they do is use it to increase their margins? No drop in oil since Fall â05 has led to a drop in gasoline prices, as more than 10% of the nationâs refining capacity has been kept off-line for almost the entire last 18 months. While the refineries burn or get taken down for maintenance, Valero Energy Corp. (VLO) (for example) bought back over $2B of its own stock while spending little enough on that maintenance (and fire prevention) to keep its average operating cost per barrel down to just $4 (I kid you not!).
I have this same issue with Nigeria, where six more hostages were taken this morning, this time seizing six construction workers on a boat. This brings the count up to 200 foreign workers and 100 kidnapping incidents this year (once every 1.4 days on average) that has cut Nigeriaâs oil production by 1/3, which is 800,000 barrels a day at $60 per barrel or $48M per day that is not being spent ON A FRIGGINâ SECURITY GUARD! COME ON PEOPLE - THIS IS A TOTAL SCAM AND WE FALL FOR IT EVERY 1.4 DAYS!
Only by distracting you with non-stop fear and terror from Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, Hurricanes, etc. can the oil criminals get away with charging you four times more for the same amount of gas (within 3%) that we consumed when gas was under $1 per gallon.
Anyway, thatâs more of a weekend topic, but itâs a holiday and youâll be sending Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) almost $10 in operating income every time you fill up your tank. So I figure itâs good to have something to think about - this is another topic you can forward to your Congressmen (including state and local) in our continuing series aimed at putting a stop to this nonsense.
Keep in mind that CNBC Fast Moneyâs" Eric Bolling and other energy traders are licking their chops to get into the $400B water business, just another place where they can squeeze the life out of you by taking over a vital resource and then creating a series of "crises" to triple their profits.
