Despite record level gas prices, Shell and BP post big profits

I was quite annoyed when I saw the article titled “BP and Shell post big profits in era of record oil prices” on the usatoday.com website.

I reside in Newark and work in Philadelphia and am sometimes required to make the commute by car. A round trip is approximately 100 miles, potentially resulting in a gas bill of over $350 per month. Judging from the amount of traffic I see on the roads each day, I am only one of many hundreds of thousands (or rather millions) of commuters that are subjected to these high prices.

While it is perfectly understandable that the additional cost associated with the high oil prices should be passed on to the consumer, it does seem as though companies like BP and Shell have increased their profit margins on their products. This seem very unethical given the current economic conditions.

The current high gas prices have been blamed for slowing the economy. In order to counter the slowing economy, the federal government has gone as far as to issue a $168 billion stimulus plan in the form of tax rebates. People like senators McCain and Clinton have gone as far as to call for a tax break on gasoline for the summer.

Never the less, the 'economy' is pretty good at BP and Shell. In spite of millions of Americans feeling the pinch of the increased gas prices and the slowing economy, companies like BP and Shell are free to exploit the situation and record huge profits.

I cannot help but wonder if the driving force behind the anti bio-fuel movement aren't the big oil companies. The ability to make huge profits even in a bearish economy is not something that any company would want to relinquish.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/earnings/2008-04-29-oil-earnings_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip