DiamondDave
Army Vet
the percentage the oil companies are making in profit off each dollar is INCREASING as well, not JUST their profit dollars but their profit MARGIN has risen dramatically....
so even if they did not sell one drop more than the previous year, and the prices of oil did not go up one penny from one year to the next, the oil companies would STILL be much more profitable because they raised their profit MARGIN(percent) by a 65% increase....they were attaining about 6.5% in their profit margin and now they are attaining %10.5 in their profit margin(exxon/mobile)....THIS HAS NOTHING to do with their profit DOLLARS being up because the price of oil has gone up, thus adding higher revenues/sales....this is their choice to raise what they were getting in profit margin to a much, much much higher profit margin....they are making more on every dollar, NOT JUST generating more revenue dollars from oil being higher.
care
Profit margins can and do fluctuate... and with oil it would depend on successes of projects, not having to buy or replace certain pieces of equipment, etc... the list goes on
But the fact remains that the profit margin of oil companies is not hugely substantial... the amount of investment to obtain that profit is absolutely HUGE.... and the amount of profit earned for their efforts is smaller than the amount of taxation profit taken by the government on that same oil and oil products
Oh... and yes.. the average oil company profit margin is still at approximately 7.6%, compared with 9.2% for other types of manufacturers