and your point

be prepared I've got a rebuttal

@glennlab My point?

You use oil to create gasoline and other products.

Oil has gone from $53 per barrel to $99 per barrel, roughly doubled in price.

Therefore gasoline has roughly doubled in price.

Let's hear the rebuttal.

@BD66 Let me give you the normal process. Exxon llc 1011587 sells the crude it produces to Exxon pipeline llc, Exxon pipeline llc transports and sells the oil to Exxon terminal llc, Exxon terminal llc, Exxon terminal llc then sells the oil to Exxon refining, Exxon refining makes gasoline out of the short end of the barrel selling the gasoline to Exxon pipeline llc and selling the rest to Exxon chemical to be farther refined into other products, Exxon pipeline llc transports and sells the gas to different Exxon terminals for distribution to Exxon distributors who then sell the product to local company owned Exxon retailers.

When oil was $140 a barrel gasoline was $3.60 a gallon, with oil at $99 a barrel today gasoline is at over $4 a gallon, Exxon profits are up billions in just the first quarter with lower sales. It is corporate greed at all levels. Oil prices are fixed by the producers, who also happen to be the transporters, refiners and distributors.

@glennlab You have described the process of producing, transport, refining, transport, and consumption. Oil prices and gas prices are highly correlated, but not perfectly correlated because there is time lag between when the oil is produced in the ground and when it is sold at the pump. This plot shows daily oil and gas futures prices for the past year. As you can see (over the past year) the prices of each has doubled.

You also correctly point out that their are multiple parties involved in production, transport, refining, transport, and selling. Those that will see the most profit are those involved in production because their production costs have not gone up, but the price they receive per barrel of oil has roughly doubled.

@BD66 The cost of producing a barrel of oil has remained steady at around $30 a barrel. Everything above that is profit to the energy companies, they own it from the time it is the ground until it goes into your tank, They sell it to themselves through shell games and slight of hand.