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Mad About Gas? Dunk a Shell Employee
What if a gas station manager offered you a free car wash if all you had to was rant about high gas prices for 20 seconds or drop a shell employee in a dunk tank. Find out what customers at a California gas station do when offered this opportunity. What if a gas station manager offered you a free car wash if all you had to was rant about high gas prices for 20 seconds or drop a sh... more
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The City The Credit Crunch Forgot
It is the city the credit crunch forgot. The rest of the UK may be feeling the pinch, but life is good in Aberdeen, the oil capital of Europe.
World energy prices are soaring with Brent Crude now trading at the once unimaginable figure of $120 a barrel.
The oil industry is booming and as a result Aberdeen and its residents are enjoying a prosperity not seen since the 1970s.
Trade is as brisk as ever at the city's best-known restaurant the Silver Darling.
Owner and chef Didier Dejeun says the credit crunch is having no effect here at all.
He said: "All the oil executives and their families are based here, they have to spend their money somewhere and they spend it in Aberdeen.
"There is no limit to how much some people will spend. They arrive at the restaurant in their Ferraris and their Bentleys and order champagne."
The five-star Marcliffe Hotel and Spa is situated in the Pitfodels area of the city, which boasts the highest proportion of millionaires anywhere outside London.
Owner Stewart Spence says the hotel has never been so busy and customers are still willing to spend money on life's luxuries.
He said: "Aberdeen is basically all about energy and the price of oil worldwide means more employment and exploration, which all comes back to the city.
"People's spending habits haven't changed at all. Customers are still asking for the best wines and the lobster."
But some believe Aberdeen cannot buck the trend forever and that the big companies like Shell and BP will be unable to keep posting record breaking multi billion pound profits each quarter.
However, former Lord Provost and city councillor John Reynolds disagrees.
"The price of oil will not go down, it will get up to $150 maybe even $200 a barrel in two years time," he says.
"We will continue to benefit from that here."
The downside is that the people of Aberdeen will still have to pay the price at the pumps. For many though, that is a price worth paying. It is the city the credit crunch forgot. The rest of the UK may be feeling the pinch, but life is good in Aberdeen, the oil capital of... more -
Big Oil defend huge profits before Senate
It was the second time this year that the executives of Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., BP America Inc., ConocoPhillips Co. and Shell Oil Co. had been summoned to testify before Congress. When they came in early April oil cost about $98 a barrel. On Wednesday, it bounded past $134 a barrel for a time and gasoline cost a national average of $3.80 a gallon.
Since regular people are scrimping to pay for gasoline to go to work, Sen. Patrick Leahy wanted to make it personal for the men of Big Oil.
The executives, whose companies reported $36 billion in profits during the first three months of the year, wanted to talk about tight supplies and growing global demand. They said that while the companies made billions of dollars, they also spent billions to find and produce more oil.
But senators complained the executives were trying to come across as “hapless victims” while raking in record profits. They wanted to press the executives about public anguish over paying $60 or more to fill up a car’s gas tank. It was the second time this year that the executives of Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., BP America Inc., ConocoPhillips Co. and Shel... more -
BP and Shell post big profits in era of record oil prices
Oil companies making huge profits, is anyone surprised by this.
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