ExxonMobil leaving the retail gas business

HOUSTON (AP) -- ExxonMobil is getting out of the retail gasoline business, a market where profits have gotten tougher because of high crude oil prices.

The world's largest publicly traded oil company said Thursday it will sell its 820 company-owned stations and another 1,400 outlets operated by dealers to gasoline distributors across the United States.

The Irving, Texas-based company didn't disclose financial details, but said the transition will take place over a "multiyear period."

However, motorists will continue to see Exxon and Mobil stations throughout the country. About 75% of its roughly 12,000 stations in the United States are owned by branded distributors. ExxonMobil (XOM, Fortune 500) will still sell gasoline to those stations and get paid for the use of its name.

Reply to
Mark A
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It does not really matter since Exxonn sells oil to all kinds of companies and the oil company gets most of the profits anyway.

They are just cutting loose the extra car they dont need...

Reply to
Don't Taze Me, Bro!

That's correct. The price is oil is determined by commodity prices on the world futures markets and is not determined by the oil companies.

Reply to
Mark A

"Jeff Strickland" wrote in news:N1k4k.15290$3j2.3008@trnddc03:

Oil companies BUY oil as well, you know. They buy futures to afford themselves protection against increases in the buy price.

Reply to
Tegger

"Mark A" wrote in news:4Nj4k.4050$ snipped-for-privacy@bignews1.bellsouth.net:

What totally baffles me is how nobody seems to understand that simple fact.

Another simple fact few are aware of: 85% of the world's oil supply is produced and controlled by governments.

ExxonMobil is a piker in the oil business. Only about 7% of the world's oil is available for direct ownership and control by private companies, and ExxonMobil controls only a small portion of that.

Reply to
Tegger

In the end they have quadrupled profits 4 times in less than 6 years. The CEO's are making 70% more.

Reply to
Don't Taze Me, Bro!

Who would they sell it to Jeff, themselves? You must understand that the end customer of a crude oil futures contract is an oil refinery. Yes, Exxon, Sunoco, etc are players in the futures market for oil. They do that to lock in the price they pay for the crude they need. But they don't buy oil to resell at a later date. Ennron did that kind of thing and look where it got them.

Jack

Reply to
Retired VIP

BP/Arco's trying to do the same thing, telling their franchisees that are operating buildings & land & equipment owned by Arco that they can buy all of it, or lose their business.

The big bucks are in extraction and refining. The retail operations are very low margin, with a lot of unpleasant expenses when you have problems like leaking tanks.

Reply to
SMS

So how come you didn't buy any oil company stock a few years ago, or maybe even buy some crude oil futures? You had the same chance to make money on oil as they did.

Reply to
Mark A

You are full of it.

An BP refinery purchases oil from BP oil wells at the same price as other refineries, which is local "posted price" at that location. This reflects the price of oil on the world market (largely determined by futures contracts), adjusted for the quality of the oil (sweet, light, intermediate, heavy, etc) and for transportation charges (which depends on where the oil sales point is located).

Reply to
Mark A

I thought profits were hovering in the 8 to 10% range. To quadruple 4 times, they would have had to been close to zero before, and I don't think that was the case. And if it was, then they certainly needed to increase profits to remain viable (if they were barely breaking even).

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Reply to
Bill Putney

Good! What we really need now is for gas shortages in addition to high prices. Looong lines at the pumps. That will be the only way we can get the dead assed demmies in congress to get their dead-assed butts off the chairs and get something done. As it stands, the voting public still seem enamored with Nancy Pee, harry ried and their gang of DNC thugs, moveon.org etc, bent on using pure politics to gain power at the people's expense.

Reply to
dbu

What is irritating is with every rise in the price of oil, they seem to tack on some extra profit or themselves with every increase. It's not just all due to the increase in price of a barrel of oil as far as gas price increases. Note the ever rising profits they take in every quarter.. Bunch of greedy thugs I think... High oil or not..

Reply to
nm5k

Their profits hover around 8 to 10%.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Reply to
Bill Putney

How like ExxonMobil, the main heir to Johnny Rockefeller's Standard Oil trust, to cut and run. They're the largest driver behind higher retail prices in this country. They'll make even more obscene profits after they sell off the gas stations, and saddle the new owners with the miniscule profits they make at retail. To them, it doesn't matter, they've already made a killing. They make a huge profit with oil at almost 140 a barrel because they produce oil. They make more huge profits when gas sells for over 4 dollars a gallon because they refine and distribute gas, too. The only place that isn't making a carload of money is the retail sales end.

Do you realize it takes those sand-pounders an average of about 2 dollars to pull a barrel out of the ground? We should have melted them into a huge ball of glass in 1973.

Charles the Curmudgeon

Reply to
CharlesTheCurmudgeon

They're not cutting and running. Rather, they're concentrating on what they do best: Drilling for fuel and refining it. Just like McDonalds sold Boston Market and Ford sold Jaguar and Land Rover. In both cases, the companies wanted to concentrate on their core businesses. GE, often cited as an excellently run company, has sold many units, and is putting is household appliance unit for sale, too.

The largest driver is the price of crude oil, something ExxonMobil has little control.

Actually, no. They don't make obscene profits. If you want to support your statement, start with what profits they should be allowed to make, and how you determined this value.

Really? How come their downstream profits are down this year? Downstream is refining and marketing.

So, do they have a responsibility to continue this line of business?

Really? Does that include the cost of setting up those well in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico? Very little oil is left that can be easily drilled and pumped.

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff

Since when is 8 to 10% considered an obscene profit?

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Reply to
Bill Putney

Just wait. They're using the miniscule retail profits to thin out what they're making elsewhere. Every business tries to do it.

The oil companies, in cahoots with the sand-pounders have been giving it to us since 1973. Who do you think set up the damn oil wells in Saudi Arabia in the first place?

Charles the Curmudgeon.

Charles the Curmudgeon.

Reply to
CharlesTheCurmudgeon

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