Oil sector’s ‘staggering’ $3bn-a-day profits for last 50 years

[ORG]

Revealed: oil sector’s ‘staggering’ $3bn-a-day profits for last 50 years​

Vast sums provide power to ‘buy every politician’ and delay action on climate crisis, says expert

The oil and gas industry has delivered $2.8bn (£2.3bn) a day in pure profit for the last 50 years, a new analysis has revealed.

The vast total captured by petrostates and fossil fuel companies since 1970 is $52tn, providing the power to “buy every politician, every system” and delay action on the climate crisis, says Prof Aviel Verbruggen, the author of the analysis. The huge profits were inflated by cartels of countries artificially restricting supply.

What is the distinction between unearned profit and earned profit? The article numerous times mentions unearned profit.

 

[bawlmer]

What is the distinction between unearned profit and earned profit? The article numerous times mentions unearned profit.

Increasing land values would be an example of unearned profit.

 

[i'vegotwinners]

You don't understand business, do you?

What if the oil industry did 3T/day revenue, are you upset they have a 1% profit margin? What profit margin should a company be allowed to make? Do you want the government to dictate profit margins?

Ok. I re-read your post and now I understand you do not know the difference between profit and profit margin.

You asked why water companies don't make 3B/day. It's because it's a renewable resource and not finite, and easier to extract. Therefore the value of water is lower due to abundant supply.

Now if fresh water becomes scarce, and it is, costs of desalination will increase the price of water and water companies may have revenues high enough to have 3B/day in profits. But know that AWK, one of the largest water companies has a 30%+ profit margin, even in a regulated industry.

Now, if you look at the other industries you mentioned, you would see that they too have profit margins in the 30's and higher. Energy is typically in the lower tier.

Average Gross Profit Margin by Industry – 22 Years of Data [S&P 500]

Updated 4/21/2023 Gross profit margin is one of the three main margin formulas in a company’s income statement, which measures a company’s efficiency in creating profitability. Gross profit margin, or “Gross Margin”, is basically how profitable a product or service is before you account for the...

einvestingforbeginners.com

If you want to focus on profits per day, as the headline highlighted, there are other industries, like technology, that dwarf that 3B/day, that have much higher margins. And I would argue in 2022, technology is just as important to society as the other industries you mentioned.

you're the idiot who knows nothing about business. or about big oil.

in the end, profit is what you bank, and all that matters.

3 bil a day profit at even 0.0001% margin always beats 1 mil a day profit at even 99.999% margin.

just ask Putin or Gates or Bezos or Musk or any oligarch which they'd rather have the daily profits from, the 3 bil a day low margin company or the 1 mil a day high margin company.

margin is only a statistic, and a malleable one at that, and you can't bank margin.

all that said, what makes you an even bigger idiot troll, is thinking you or anyone else here, or their army of accountants, have the slightest idea what big oil's margins actually are, or that they are ever going to tell you.

and what makes you an even bigger idiot troll than that, is not grasping that it's in the entire economy's as a whole, including Wall St as a whole, and society's best interests, that some industries like oil/gas, healthcare, all utilities including cable/satellite and the internet, should be regulated so that their margins are as low as possible for them to still comfortably serve their purpose.

i'll assume you're just being a dishonest troll.

if not, you definite don't grasp the big picture, in even a capitalist economy.

if it's the latter, open your eyes to far more than you currently see.

 

[JamieDimonsBalls]

Increasing land values would be an example of unearned profit.

I don't think that is how the author is using it though, which is what the article is likely citing.

The analysis, based on World Bank data, assesses the “rent” secured by global oil and gas sales, which is the economic term for the unearned profit produced after the total cost of production has been deducted.

 

[ribbont]

you're the idiot who knows nothing about business. or about big oil.

in the end, profit is what you bank, and all that matters.

3 bil a day profit at even 0.0001% margin always beats 1 mil a day profit at even 99.999% margin.

just ask Putin or Gates or Bezos or Musk or any oligarch which they'd rather have the daily profits from, the 3 bil a day low margin company or the 1 mil a day high margin company.

margin is only a statistic, and a malleable one at that, and you can't bank margin.

all that said, what makes you an even bigger idiot troll, is thinking you or anyone else here, or their army of accountants, have the slightest idea what big oil's margins actually are, or that they are ever going to tell you.

and what makes you an even bigger idiot troll than that, is not grasping that it's in the entire economy's as a whole, including Wall St as a whole, and society's best interests, that some industries like oil/gas, healthcare, all utilities including cable/satellite and the internet, should be regulated so that their margins are as low as possible for them to still comfortably serve their purpose.

i'll assume you're just being a dishonest troll.

if not, you definite don't grasp the big picture, in even a capitalist economy.

if it's the latter, open your eyes to far more than you currently see.

I'll tap out as the great Mark Twain said:

NEVER ARGUE WITH STUPID PEOPLE. THEY WILL DRAG YOU DOWN TO THEIR LEVEL AND BEAT YOU WITH EXPERIENCE.​

And you sir, are a stupid person. Good day.