I just read an interesting article and it struck me how much the oil companies are making. And what a travesty the gas tax holiday is...
Apparently the US refining capacity is 17.5 million barrels a day. A barrel is 31 gallons. Thanks to the article I learnt a new term - Gross Refining Margin. The difference between what refiners pay for a barrel of oil and the price they get for products made from it is known as the gross refining margin.
The article says: "In recent years, that margin has jumped as high as $30 per barrel during peak periods.
But the average U.S. refining margin was $14.68 per barrel Wednesday, compared with $23 this time last year, according to a report Wednesday by Eitan Bernstein, industry analyst with Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co.
...
While gasoline prices have soared almost 40 percent since last year, the price of crude has more than doubled."
So if I get this one right, it means that with prices of crude oil being $60-70 last summer (I don't remember what they were tbh), the refiners were making $23 on every barrel of oil or 75 cents per gallon.
But according to the same source during the better years, they were making $30 per barrel. Mind you, the barrel was nowhere near $60-70 back then and more likely $30-$40.
Houston Chronicle Article - a good read
So, while you enjoy your 2 cents a gallon relief with the gas tax holiday, the oil companies will continue making billions of dollars. The average U.S. refining margin was $14.68 per barrel (50 cents per gallon) Wednesday... With 17.5 million barrels a day, that makes 260 million dollars a day (over 90 billion dollars a year). Of course, if the article is correct, that is nowhere near the 600 or so million a day (200+ billion a year) they should have been making just a couple of years ago.