Quote:

The truth of the matter is that profit margins are increasing as well as raw profit figures.



I don't think I said that the margins weren't going up, just that they're not going up to some heinous amount or even anything close to that. 10 years ago Big Oil was hurting, with extremely low margins of 2-4%. They have increased, but they're still only at a nominal, average level for a healthy company.

And, more importantly for recent events, as I mentioned, refiners are bumping up their margins to more acceptable levels now as well. Perhaps even a tad bit too far. Since the beginning of the year refining costs have almost doubled in some areas, adding an extra 30 cents per gallon. These fluctuations are normal, and time will tell how much this jump sticks around.

2003 Mazda6s 3.0L MTX Webpage 2004 Mazda3s 2.3L ATX