- ‹ previous
- 1977 of 7881
- next ›
Is Exxon Out of Gas?
ExxonMobil announced this week that it plans to sell off 2,200, or nearly 1/5, of its 12,000 gas stations because they aren't profitable enough. This, from the world's biggest oil company, after having posted the largest yearly profit ever—$40.61 billion—that's almost $1,300 every second. With the average price at the pump having recently breached the $4/gal mark, an increase of more than one dollar from a year ago, you'd think that the money would continue flowing.
But apparently our oil companies are feeling the shift in the winds.
Though many Americans are hit hard by high gas prices, it's increasingly difficult to ignore the ones who are finding alternatives. These days more and more people are commuting by mass and public transit systems, as well as by carpool and bike. Many more are turning to hybrids or filling their tanks with biofuels. And as this latest sell-off suggests, even our oil companies are transitioning. CNN quotes Ben Soraci, the U.S. director of retail sales for ExxonMobil, saying, "As the highly competitive fuels marketing business in the U.S. continues to evolve, we believe this transition is the best way for ExxonMobil to compete and grow in the future."
This may mark the beginning of our energy industry transitioning out of oil. The question remains, what are they transitioning to?
Photo used under creative commons license.
Digg
Reddit
Twitter
Facebook
Buzz Up!
StumbleUpon
MySpace
LinkedIn
Delicious
Furl
Google
Yahoo
This just proves something that those of us who've worked in gas stations already know, there may be huge money in pumping oil out of the ground and refining it but the few cents a gallon you can get for pumping it into someones tank isn't enough to keep a gas station afloat. Its an incredibly competitive market out there for most gas stations and if you try to get a few cents a gallon more than the other guys business dries up and all the junk food that keeps you in business goes unsold. Oil isn't likely to disappear any time soon, though I understand sales of small cars are going through the roof along with public transit ridership.
Gas stations are barely profitable and a bother for the company. What they will do is franchise them to poor souls and force the franchisee into working long hours for very little money and eventual bankrupcy, where Exxon can reclaim the station and franchise it again.
Peak oil is here people.Big oil company selling off the reatil gasoline business, retired oil execs pouring billions of dollars into renewable and alternative energy projects as well as the Saudi's.If there's still plenty of easily recoverable oil why the sudden interest in alternatives by people and organizations that have gotten filthy rich off of fossil fuels?They know something the rest of us don't and many don't want to and they are in no hurry to admit it.They're just going to keep selling to addicted Americans and use the money to set themselves up for what comes after.We are living in interesting times.
Peak oil you say zqahtt? Well its definitely happening but that has nothing to do with why Exxon is selling stations at this moment, and something of the oil economy will likely remain for decades and it will remain profitable for awhile yet.
Out of gas...my ass! When they file for bankruptcy then will talk about it.
They'd rather sell the overpriced gas to independent vendors, rather than deal with all the overhead costs of owning the stations.
It appears ExxonMobil is protecting their capital, and those stations are losing their value as capital.