It's possible that big oil gets a nickel. It's also possible that that's a bogus number someone pulled out of the air. Suppose it's only a nickel on a gallon of gas. That doesn't in any way indicate what they get for a barrel of oil. How much does Exxon profit on a barrel of oil before it's refined. I know how much the government profits. Suddenly I don't feel so bad for them only making a nickel a gallon profit. They won't tell you that they refine their own oil and divert all the profits to the upstream side of the business to make it appear they don't make as much on the downstream side. I work for a manufacturing company that does the same thing. We manufacture parts and sell them to a parts supplier that we also own. This parts supplier marks up the parts so high it's impossible for us to make a profit. Parts wholesalers pay a different tax rate than manufacturers so we come out smelling great on both ends.
