Exxon Sees Record Profits for US Firm

IRVING, Texas (AP) -- Exxon Mobil Corp. on Monday posted a record profit for a U.S. company of $10.71 billion in the fourth quarter, as the world's biggest publicly-traded oil company benefited from high oil and gas prices and demand for refined products.

Hmm. So wait, why are gas prices high again if its just driving profits? Let's do some math ... 10.71 billion ... nicely divides into the 107 million households in the US ... I guess that's only $10 per household per quarter per oil firm.

REVISION. SOMEONE Pointed out that I can't add very well. That is $100 per household per quarter per firm. This negates the rest of my blog article where I pander to the interests of the oil companies.

Negated blog follows
Assume all 4 major oil companies are roughly equally profitable. So that's $40 per household per quarter. Assuming we burn about 125 billion gallons per year, thats 1168 gallons per household per year, 292 per quarter. That creates .14 per gallon of "profit tax," or a pure profit margin of 6.1% profit.

Ok, so when I started writing this article, I was angry at the unnecessary price gouging. Now, I kinda figure they really *are not* making extra-normal profits. We are just consuming extra-normal supplies of gasoline. I mean, I'd like to see their profit decrease to 4%, but that's not realistic given current circumstances. They *do* need to reinvest in future technologies.

Try again. $400 per household per quarter, or $1600 per year is paid per household to pure profit of the oil companies. Now, carrying on.

Holy profiteering batman! That is $1.37 of PURE PROFIT per gallon. Wait, that can't be right. It just can't be, thats a 60% profit margin.

Can someone tell me if I made a mistake here that I'm just not getting? Because this is really bad. My units are consistent, always using households. It seems right, but. Um. I'll be back. I'm going into the oil business.