Do gas prices really reflect the profits of oil companies?

[edward]

The small independent owners definitely did not gain from the high prices at the pump.

Think your local gas station is making a killing off today's $3-plus-per-gallon prices? Wrong.

The soaring demand and supply disruptions that have pushed oil prices above $70 a barrel and produced record profits for oil companies and refiners has been bad news for the businesses that actually sell gasoline to motorists, which are paying higher wholesale prices and absorbing some of the increase themselves. Some experts say considerably higher oil prices could push mom-and-pop gasoline retailers out of business altogether.

http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/archive/05oct/bigb_gasstation.htm

And from what I have read the big oil companies don't like the retail end of the business. I think we will be seeing a lot of big mega pump independants in the future. Walmart, Sams Club, and Costco already have established the trend.

Edit: I just read the rest of the link above and found this: oops

While independent gas-station owners are under pressure, sales and profits are looking better for another category of gas retailers: big-box retailers, supermarkets and large megachains that also sell gasoline on the street. These high-volume stores, such as Wal-Mart Stores and Costco Wholesale, tend to sell gasoline for about three to seven cents a gallon less than regular gas stations. Big-box discounters and grocers such as Kroger and Randalls are expanding their market share at a rate of about 20% a year, according to one estimate.

 

[Mercator]

http://www.newrules.org/retail/gas.html
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2001/07/29/loc_price_wars_fierce_at.html
http://www.slate.com/id/2100546/
http://www.nacsonline.com/NACS/Resource/PRToolkit/FactSheets/prtk_fact_motorfuels.htm
http://www.nacsonline.com/NACS/Resource/PRToolkit/FactSheets/prtk_fact_ecoimpact.htm
It seems that in the end it all about balances out. If a retailer is trying to remain competitive they can lose money on gas sales which will need to be made up for by taking out of the convenience store sales. If they don't remain competitive they'll simply lose money all around. No one will being buying from their convenience stores if no one is there buying gas.
Whole sale prices for nonfranchise stations shouldn't be much different from franchise if at all. They all get their gas from the same refineries. I'm not sure how it works exactly with gas stations but usually when you run a franchise you pay the company to use their name and logo. The cost of running franchise as opposed to independant may be one of the contributing factors in name brand stations having higher prices. Otherwise their profit margins should stay about the same as far as I can tell.

Right. Only I prefer to speak of "majors and independents" in the gas retail sector. Majors being the outlets carrying the name of a major petroleum products producer, while independents can be small local companies, but also bigger organizations that own or franchise hundreds of gas stations. So the "independents" as well as the "majors" can have franchises, and then the competitive advantages of both probably level out. The loosers are the real small independents with sometimes one or a few stations and no links to big retail organizations. And the winners seem to be more and more the big retailers, attracting customers to their warehouses by means of cheap petrol. The public gets more aware of the fact that it all comes from the same refineries. (However, this does not mean all the product is the same, in Europe, some refineries will have additives in their products, only for their own brand name stations. Some independents sell then without additives, or buy their own, different ones. And to make the situation completely chaotic, some major brand name stations ALSO buy from smaller non-major refineries! And I could tell you about the interference of storage in this process, but then we discuss about product quality and that's a different issue).
Just trying to make things clear, so people here can actually know what they discuss about.