Gas Station Boycott

[GLC1968]

Have you all seen this? Probably not too hard to do for those of us who can commute by bicycle!



Fed Up With Gas Prices and the Oil Companies Making Huge Profits?


Join the GAS STATION BOYCOTT May 12, 2008 through June 12, 2008!

Effective Monday, May 12, 2008, Consumers will not purchase gas from the major gas companies, such as, ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron Texaco, Shell Oil, Beacon, and Ultramar for 30 days!

Consumers will purchase gas from the smaller gas companies, such as, Costco, Murphy, Safeway, Food Lion, etc..

Let's send a message to the oil companies that their huge profits at our expense is over!


Gas Boycott Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq4ixNu9NkE



Personally, I don't think it'll do much good towards improving gas prices, but it may get a few more people out on bikes!

[Mr. Bloom]

Consumers will purchase gas from the smaller gas companies, such as, Costco, Murphy, Safeway, Food Lion, etc..

I am a bit perplexed by this...where do they think the little guys get their gas from? It's all just BP and Exxon sold through a different branded station...

And many of the large brands' stations tend to be owned by franchisee's...

[Eden]

That's not hard at all - the little gas we do buy comes from Costco or Safeway anyway as they do offer the best prices around here.

You've got a point there Mr. Silver! lots of retailers, few people who actually get it out of the ground.

[sundial]

I've seen these messages float around via e-mail and I usually research Snopes to verify it. Here's the link to read about this urban legend:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/gasout.asp

[mimitabby]

just don't drive this month! that will show them

[DrBadger]

OK, I have to pipe in here....(disclaimer, I work for a major oil and gas company).

First off, Mr.Silver is right, going to the smaller "independent" gas stations as opposed to a shell, Exxon, BP etc station will not hurt the major oil and gas companies, all the gas comes from the same refineries. Those are run by either the major integrated oil and gas companies (Shell, Exxon, BP, Chevron, Conoco) or one of the refining companies (Valero). Everyone buys everyone elses oil to refine and then the resulting gasoline.

Second, the oil companies’ profit margins are controlled by a lot of things other than gasoline sales. Actually, at my company last year our profit margins were hurt by our refining and marketing end! A big part of the profit margins are the really high price of oil (~$115 this week). This is not being controlled much by how much gasoline people in the US are buying... it is a combination of OPEC (the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) setting prices by controlling production levels, increasing demand in places like China and India, and the weak dollar is driving a lot of investors to hedge by dumping $$ into oil, which is traded in US dollars worldwide. If a company only does exploration and production they are directly benefiting from $100/barrel oil since all they do is sell the oil they find and produce. For the companies that also refine the oil into gasoline, they have to purchase the produced oil at the $100/barrel, but all of that added expence isn't handed directly onto the customer base (ie. the price of gasoline hasn't risen as much as the price of oil) so the companies actually have a smaller profit margin on the refining end of the company than they did 2 years ago.

In terms of profits, yeah, $11 billion sounds like a TON of money (to me even!), but when you look at the net profit margin (how much money is made vs. the amount spent to create the product) it isn't out of line with any other successful corporation. The average for oil and gas companies is around 9% (ranging from ~5%-14%, the 14 is petro-china). Compare this to the net profit margin for other major companies: GE: 10.32%, 3M: 15.29%, Toyota: 6.84%, Google: 25.20%

Now, I am not saying we shouldn't cut down on our gasoline use, drive less, drive more efficient cars when we do need to drive. That is a good thing to strive towards for helping our planet, protecting the resources we have, and our own personal finances, but ultimately it won't have a huge effect on the profits of oil and gas companies like these kinds of boycotts try to say it will.

OK, getting off my soap box, and looking up the address of the friend that I am carpooling with tomorrow to help another friend move (so we don't all drive).
E.