Senate Questions Top Five Oil Execs

May 26, 2008

As the price of oil goes up to an unprecedented degree, the US Senate has gathered together the executives of the five biggest oil companies in America. Senate is accusing the five big oil companies of unfairly profiting from the high prices of oil, fleecing millions of hapless Americans who depend on oil for livelihood and survival.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) asked during the conference, “Where is the corporate conscience?”. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), elaborated, “People we represent are hurting, the companies you represent are profiting.” The senator claimed that the high gas prices that now assail American drivers do not reflect the supply of oil available.

The oil executives claimed that the industry requires that oil prices be as high as they are. J. Stephen Simon, of Exxon Mobil Corp., explained that although oil industry profits are very high, the profits “must be viewed in the context of the massive scale of our industry.”

He claimed that oil industry was subject to vast cycles of growth and decline, and that any large profits that the industry makes now – during a period of growth – must all be re-invested to guard against the periods of decline.

Sen. Patrick Leahy answered sardonically that the present time was hardly a period of growth for the average consumer, forced to pay up to $4 per gallon of oil.

Meantime, global oil prices are up to $133 per barrel, higher than they have ever been before. This is the second time the executives of America’s biggest oil companies have been called before the US Congress. The last time they came, at the beginning of April of this year, oil cost $98 per barrel, also considered at the time to be a high price.

The executives claimed that global scarcity of oil, combined with a lack of production and processing facilities, were driving down the supply of oil, which was driving up price. The Senate countered that oil companies were making a profit incommensurate with the scarcity of supply.

Eventually, Stephen Simon of Exxon Mobil claimed of his company – and, implicitly, of the other big oil companies—that, “we’re doing all we can to put downward pressure on prices.”

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