4th line down = 9% over last year. I only wish the interest rate was 6%.
What do you pay per Gallon in OZ?
Hi Don.
I think you are missing Tony's point, What he is saying is that without knowing either the turnover or the asset value of the company the profit figure is meaningless.
For example:- If you told me you made £1000 from an investment last year it would mean very little, if however you said you made that £1000 from an investment of £1000 this would show a return of 100% - very impressive, if on the other hand the investment was £100,000, this would only mean a return of 1% not so good.
To put this in terms of Shell, if there assets are for instance worth £300bn a profit of £13.9bn would only represent a return of 4.6% not an exessive amount and some what less than the 6.81% we have been offered this week on a 6mth bond for our daughter (birthday present from nanny).
As for the 9% increase I would have expected more, I imagine with the steep increase in crude oil prices thier turnover (in £) has probably increased by more than 9% and therefore the actual profit index (profit per £ turnover) has probably reduced.
I also wonder just how many litres of product they sold last year and therefore how many pence (or part thereof) per litre this profit represents.
The greatest influence on fuel price in this country is still the tax something like 80p per litre for which we get nothing, surely getting this reduced would have a greater impact on the pump price than anything else.
I also fail to see how a boycot would work. My understanding of the supply chain would suggest that, if for instance everyone boycotted those filling stations with a "SHELL" sign all you would do is put out of business those who buy thier fuel direct from Shell, they (Shell) would be selling just as much fuel through the other outlets, e.g. Esso BP Texaco and the smaller independants that they supply. We need to remember that with so few refineries all the fuel in any particular area comes from the same supplier, regardless of the sign on the forcourt.
Don't get me wrong I am not trying to defend the oil companies or disagree with you intentions, I just don't see how it could possibly work, I wish it would but unfortunatly unless we all stop buying fuel alltogether I don't believe we will hurt the oil companies.
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