$154 million

[Steve Wood]

Even if he donates 20% a year to medical research it won't make the news.
But I agree that it's twisted to see One Man make as much as a small city of hard working people.

Okay, David...there you go

He did not make that much from the company. Read Ed's posts again.

Further, any profits he made from stock, did not come out of the company's earning.  It came from stock certificates that are part of the total number of shares that are traded on a free market.  The total number of shares of Conoco Phillips adds up to about 65 billion dollars today.

In contrast, Apple has a market cap around 550 billion today.

When a company gives stock options, or actual stock certificates, it is giving paper.  The value of this paper is determined by a free market consisting of those investors that buy and/or sell it.  Beyond the assets of a company and its debts, this paper value is basically determined by market psychology.

In other words, he did not drain the money out of the actual company earnings.  It came from the value of the company stock.  If it goes to 1$, he ain't got much.  If it goes to $100, we will be reading about how he is ripping off the poor workers that are only earning $40 an hour while he does nothing.

I hope that he cashes some in and makes some endowments to some schools to teach the principles of business. 

[Just a Six?]

That is definately not $154 Million!! Base of $1.5 & $5+ extra is low compared to some Bankers here! One guy from Royal got about $8 million plus last year for charging me to use my account!!   

[Steve Wood]

Now, looking at those bad oil companies...

Exxon routinely pays more income taxes than its profits amount to in the U.S.  Only about 25% of its total profits come from the U.S.  Yet, it invests more of its income in this country than it does on its overseas operations.  Further, most of its employees, research, etc. are based in this country.

And...beyond the income taxes it pays, it pays royalties and fees to the federal government for all the production that comes from federal lands.  That is a big chunk of money that you don't see anyone ever bring up.

Further, Exxon buys a heck of a lot more oil on the world market than it produces...aga in, this contributes to the lack of its influence in pricing.  It has relatively a low percentage of the world's oil reserves and is nothing compared to Saudi and Venezuela.  This is a point that most fail to consider because it would destroy their arguments against oil company profiteering.. ..the majority of oil being produced today belongs to foreign national oil companies and oil traders buy it from them.

[TexasT]

Sadly, most of the education of the oil and gas industry is propaganda from the left leaning media. Sadly this is also true of the rest of the misguided information that is put out to sway the public.


I don't even want to get into fracking and its benefits in getting the hydrocarbons out of the ground.