Who benefits most from oil company profits i.e. who owns the most shares???

Question

1. Pension and retirement funds.

2. Super rich.

3. Some guy named Exxon living in a gold plated room, counting money all day.

4. someone else.

Answer 1

4. Saudi Arabia...

Answer 2

Terrorists

Answer 3

Not me.   I sold all my XOM two years ago and my BP last year.   Did make a couple months pay on each for holding less than a year though.   Would retire now, or at least be able to afford gas.

Answer 4

This is a trick question, right?

We all lose.

Using oil causes global warming, which will cost us FAR more money than we'd ever earn on the stock.  Proof.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6096...

Answer 5

all of the above lol but seriously, i know a lot of oil companies are just profiteering right now, supposedly so they can raise funds for when oil "runs out" they can discover an alternative...i dont know if i believe them

http://trendsofculture.blogspot.com

Answer 6

All of the above.

If you look at the profit margin for the oil companies you would see they only make like 4 or 5 percent. Most companies would go out of business with that small of a margin.

35 million dollars divided by 5000 investors doesn't sound so windfall does it?

Answer 7

The principals of the oil company benefit most as do the shareholders. You would have to request an annual report from each oil company for a detailed list of shareholders.

The cost of a barrel of oil has only to do with supply and demand. It has nothing to do with the war in Iraq, George Bush or any of the conspiracy theories. To think otherwise is merely a blatant display of ignorance and lack of education in even the most basic economic principles.

Most oil is state managed, which is highly inefficient (Mexico, Venezuela, OPEC). Demand for oil has gone through the roof in recent years with growing populations in China, etc.

If the price of gasoline dropped to $1.00 per gallon tomorrow, there would be a run on the supply and it would be gone. Then people who hoarded it would sell it for $5 a gallon because the supply would be gone but the demand would be great still. The price of gasoline isn't about one person being greedy; it's about supply and demand. It's unfortunate that people cannot grasp that.

As end-all-be-all  "alternative fuels" are developed, food shortages will become more widespread. It takes the same amount of corn needed to feed one person for one year to make about 25 gallons of ethanol.

There are impending shortages of wheat and soybeans as farmers turn their fields to corn to get in on the ethanol craze. Eventually, ethanol will be $4 a gallon and bread will be $5 a loaf, and milk will be really hard to come by since there won't be any corn for the cows. More of the same in terms of economics.

Answer 8

1. and everybody.  That is why taxing them is such a bad solution to higher gas prices.  Punishing the only people drilling for more oil is going to make prices MUCH higher and is the absolute WORST idea to lower prices.

Answer 9

Number 4.  

Even # 2 (lol) can't touch them & # 3 wished he could.  We're pretty skunked :)

I agree with Jleblanc  and  Bravozul.  This is an interesting, multi-layered question...  

As Auntie Mame mentioned, investing helps everyone who invests. I am heavily invested and my Mutual Funds ALL have Gas and Oil interests in them, so yes, anyone in the market profits, however the profit is actually being sucked up at the pump and home oil tank, so if you do the math, it's probably break-even.  

One thing that Auntie Mame should realize is that not everyone has disposable income to invest for their future- there are many, many people fighting to put food on their tables and cloth their children, and pay basic bills....

Answer 10

Osama Lin Laden & the Bush Family

Answer 11

14% IRA accounts

23% Individual investors

27% Pension funds

29.5% Mutual funds

1.5% Oil company employees

5% Institutional investors

Unless you have no retirement savings and no pension, you benefit from oil company profits.

I can't say that I have much concern for those that are unwilling to save for their own retirement and want me to bail them out by reducing my dividends on my stock holdings.

Answer 12

The biggest profiteer in the oil industry is government.  I addition to the excise taxes on gasoline and other petroleum products, governments own more than 80% of the world's proven oil reserves and charge royalties to the oil companies.  The oil companies also pay out income tax, capital tax, sales tax and payroll tax.  Exxon is the largest single taxpayer in the USA.