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Show QUICK QUIZ ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????; 3 Oil Companies Are big oil companies a boon or a burden in han-n han-n dling the energy crunch? ' Check your knowledge of the facts. 1. In the past six years, S It 7:f ithe price of crude oil purchased pur-chased from OPEC nations na-tions has increased dramatically. dra-matically. By Kerryn King the profits per barrel realized by American Amer-ican oil companies have (a) soared (b) remained essentially essen-tially constant (c) plummeted plum-meted alarmingly? 2. Forcing our oil companies com-panies to split up would (a) render regulatory legislation unnecessary (b) decelerate the search for more energy , reserves here and around the , III'1 world (c) lower taxes? 3. Dismembering the oil companies would give more leverage to (a) the American consumer (b) OPEC coun- i tries (c) environmentalists? ANSWERS: 1. (b) or (c). Surprisingly, the oil companies' com-panies' profit per barrel has remained essentially constant. con-stant. The profit on oil imported by the U.S. is not related to the price of the crude oil. Actually, companies' com-panies' profit per barrel, as percentage of the price per barrel, has decreased dramatically. 2. (b) Weakening the U.S. oil companies would seriously seri-ously hinder their search for new energy reserves. The U.S. oil companies must be capable of helping America develop greater self-sufficiency in oil and alternate energy sources. 3. (b) Weakening American Ameri-can oil companies would substantially increase U.S. dependence on foreign oil and strengthen the ability of OPEC to set world oil prices. Answers to these questions ques-tions have been provided by Kerryn King, Senior Vice President of Texaco Inc. |