The oil world's new bullies

[Canuck_Buck]

There's a new set of oil bullies on the block. And they're named Russia, Iran, Venezuela and Chad

No need to feel sorry for the Exxon Mobils of the world while you're filling up your tank with $3-a-gallon gas. Who can feel sorry for a company that earned $36 billion in 2005, more than any U.S. company ever?

But as you seethe about $3 gas now and worry about $4 gas next year, remember that big oil isn't calling the shots anymore. Venezuela has forced ExxonMobil(XOM, news, msgs) to slink out of the country and has made Chevron(CVX, news, msgs) and ConocoPhillips(COP, news, msgs) take a 75% hike in royalties and a 50% increase in taxes and say, "Thank you, sir, may I please have another?"

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/P149921.asp?GT1=8180

Joy to the world.....[&:]

[NCOutdoors]

That's fine. Just as long as we aren't drilling for more of our own oil. We deserve this.

[kevin1]

Peru is approaching fast , they're nationalizing their natural gas industry in a move similar to that of Venezuela's as we type .
Stay tuned folks ...

[NCOutdoors]

In a related issue (ANWR), the governor of Alaska wrote a good guest column in the Seattle paper. Read it if you have time.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...rkowski11.html

[Briman]

If I ran an oil company that operated in a country that pulled that crap, I'd pull the plug, move out, and let their little pissant dictatorship economy implode.

[DougMD]

Exxon Mobile has a market capitalization of $377 billion, making their earnings 10% of total market capitalization. While it translates to a good return on book value common equity, I believe its PB ratio is much greater than one, meaning the actual ROE is much lower than people think.