The Netherlands: Drop in oil prices of 30% not reflected in Dutch gasoline prices at the pump

After the price for oil collapsed rather dramatically during the past year many people looked forward to lower feul prices at the pump.

Unfortunately the 30% drop in oil prices did not reflect in a similar drop at the pump this past year.

In the Netherlands one liter  of unleaded Euro95 today averages €1,54. A year ago the gasoline price for that same liter averaged €1,62.  A drop of only 5 % at the pump  and this while the oil price dropped 30%..

Obviously one has to also include such items as Government Taxes/VAT ,and  the oil companies profit margins.

Rgardless, however, based on all this factors, this can not amount to 25% of the 30% drop in oil prices.

Somewhere along the line the customer is being robbed and the finger seems to point to the oil companies who still seem to be making  record profits at the pump.

Almere-Digest.

France: Total CEO killed in Moscow airport accident - Europe

Christophe de Margerie, the chief executive officer of Total SA, the French oil company, has been killed in an accident at Moscow's Vnukovo airport, according to official sources.

A representative of the transport investigative committee said the French-made Falcon 50 business jet, headed for France, collided with the snow-removal machine during take-off, TASS news agency reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his condolences over the incident, calling de Margerie a "true friend of our country".

Mr. Putin praised the 63-year-old oil boss as "an outstanding French entrepreneur who originated many major joint projects that formed the basis of many years of fruitful cooperation between Russia and France in the energy sector."

"In Christophe de Margerie, we lost a real friend of our country, whom we will remember with the greatest warmth," Putin said.

The Total Group on Tuesday confirmed de Margerie's death "with great and profound sadness".

Read more: Total CEO killed in Moscow airport accident - Europe - Al Jazeera English

TimesOnline: Oil giants destroy rainforests to make palm oil diesel for motorists -

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Oil giants destroy rain forests to make palm oil diesel for motorists

Fuel companies are accelerating the destruction of rainforest by secretly adding palm oil to diesel that is sold to millions of British motorists. Twelve oil companies supplied a total of 123 million litres of palm oil to filling stations in the year to April, according to official figures obtained by The Times. Only 15 per cent of the palm oil came from plantations that met any kind of environmental standard. Much of the rest came from land previously occupied by rain forest. Vast tracts of rain forest are destroyed each year by companies seeking to take advantage of the world’s growing appetite for plant-based alternatives to fossil fuel. The expansion of the palm oil industry in Indonesia has turned the country into the third-largest CO2 emitter, after China and the US. Indonesia has the fastest rate of deforestation, losing an area the size of Wales every year. The expansion of plantations has pushed the orang-utan to the brink of extinction in Sumatra.

Biofuel can be derived from dozens of crops but many fuel companies choose palm oil because it can be cheaper than the more sustainable alternatives such as rapeseed. The Renewable Fuels Agency, the British government-funded watchdog that monitors biofuel supplies knows which companies are using palm oil, but is refusing to name them on the ground that the information is commercially sensitive.

Seattle Times: Oil giants try to polish image before latest fat profit gusher - by Elizabeth Douglass

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Oil giants try to polish image before latest fat profit gusher - by Elizabeth Douglass

The world's best-known oil companies are pouring on the charm as they get ready to parade another round of fat profits before a public that feels suddenly poorer. The spotlight will shine on Exxon today and Chevron on Friday. Royal Dutch Shell already reported a 71 per cent rise in profits to euro 8.5 billion ($10.9 billion/£6.54 billion) and still counting. The world's second largest oil company's steep rise in profits follows a 148 per cent increase reported by its rival, BP, earlier this week due to record oil prices over the summer.

In 1993, the five biggest publicly traded oil companies — Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Chevron and ConocoPhillips — spent 39 percent of their operating cash flow on development projects, 14 percent on exploration and only 1 percent on buying back their own stock. In 2007, they spent 34 percent on development, 6 percent on exploration and 34 percent on stock buybacks, according to a study co-written by Jaffe. Bottom line: when oil companies spend their money, it's less about you and me than about their shareholders. In many respects, industry experts note, what's good for Big Oil's bottom line isn't necessarily good for Joe Q. Jetta.

Time Magazine: Think Gas is High in US? Try Europe - by Bruce Crumley

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Think Gas is High in US? Try Europe - by Bruce Crumley

American motorists are understandably grumbling over skyrocketing gas prices as the summer travel season approaches. But their pain hardly registers against the rage afoot in Europe these days. Fishermen, truck drivers and farmers are threatening to bring entire economic sectors to a halt with protests against crippling fuel costs. The wave of angry action is expected to spread further across Europe in coming days, despite efforts by political leaders to feel the pain and figure out how to alleviate it.

Note EU-Digest: Even though a EURO is worth more than $1.55 dollars, gas prices at the pump in Europe are going up just as fast as in America. Is their something wrong with the mathematics here? How come no-one seems to be able to deal with the oil companies?

Shell's 'obscene euro 17.80 billion profit is biggest ever by British company -

For the complete report from the the Daily Mail click on this link

Shell's 'obscene euro 17.80 billion profit is biggest ever by British company

Shell smashed all-time British company profit records today, posting 2007 earnings of euro 17.80 billion ($27.5billion, and immediately ran into a storm with union leaders, who are demanding the Government hits the oil giant with a windfall tax. Shell's profit surge - it is now making a staggering euro 48.65($75million)a day - on the back of a booming oil price that touched euro 64.87 ($100) a barrel this winter, was labeled as "obscene" by Tony Woodley of Unite, the UK's largest trade union, as Britons struggle with soaring energy costs. "Shell shareholders are doing very nicely while the rest of us are paying the price and struggling," said Woodley.

The Washington Post reporting about the obscene profits made by the oil industry noted: By most familiar comparisons, the euro 6.43 billion ($9.92) billion profit earned by Exxon Mobil Corp. in just three months is almost unimaginable. It would cover all Social Security benefit payments for three months. It would pay for an Ivy League education for about 60,000 kids. It would pay the average list price for more than 160 Boeing 737s. It would fund the military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for more than two months. Yet oil industry representatives and Exxon Mobil made a game effort to cast the record profit, earned during a quarter in which the Gulf Coast was shattered by hurricanes and gas prices rose well above $3 a gallon, as middling at best.

However the oil industry is not the only one making large profits. Most financial institutions, such as commercial banks, are routinely more profitable than Exxon Mobil was in its third quarter. For example, Exxon Mobil's gross margin of 9.8 cents of profit for every dollar of revenue pales in comparison to Citigroup Inc.'s 15.7 cents in 2004. By percentage of total revenue, banking is consistently the most profitable industry in America, followed closely by the drug industry.It might be all relative but its large in actual numbers.

globeandmail.com: How to kick oil dependency - Shawn McCarthy

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How to kick oil dependency - Shawn McCarthy

Mr. Zubrin offers up a simple answer that he says would dramatically reduce the U.S. dependence on imported oil: The U.S. Congress should mandate that all new cars sold be “flex-fuel vehicles,” or capable of running on either gasoline or biofuels.

The slight, intense aerospace engineer spoke in Ottawa and Toronto at the invitation of the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association to promote his book, Energy Victory: Winning the War on Terror by Breaking Free of Oil. He says ”OPEC is led by Saudi Arabia, which is becoming ever more obscenely wealthy by controlling energy prices, and which uses its petro-wealth to finance the spread of the extreme branch of Islam that is responsible for much terrorism. The United States is jeopardizing its national security, its economy and the global environment by remaining addicted to high-priced OPEC oil. Even harder hit by the run-up in prices are poor Third World countries."

Reuters: EU's President Barroso says euro cushioning oil price impact - "not really because oil companies raising prices at the pump regardless"

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EU's President Barroso says euro cushioning oil price impact

Europe has been shielded from the effects of rising oil prices to some extent by the strength of the euro, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told a French newspaper in an interview released on Saturday. "Today we buy a barrel of oil at 66 euros, whereas if there were perfect parity, we would be paying more than 100 euros," Barroso told the weekly Journal du Dimanche. "Of course we're concerned about this wide divergence in exchange rates, but at the same time we have to see that the so-called "strong" euro -- or rather the weak dollar -- has allowed us to cushion the impact of the rise in commodity.

Note EU-Digest: "Mr. Barosso might be right when it comes to the purchasing power of the euro, but the oil companies are still increasing the price on the oil products they sell in Europe disproportionately, regardless of the strong euro. Mrs. Neelie Kroes European Commissioner for Competition who has been doing a great job in watching out for the interest of the EU consumer should also start to focus her attention on the "price gouching" oil companies operating on the territory of the EU".