Originally Posted by ADL Colin

Well, Exploration and Production has relatively fixed costs so the margin depends on the price oil sells for in the markets. OK, so it's not truly fixed as rising demand for drilling equipment ill increase the rental or purchase costs of equipment but not nearly as much as the increase in price. And it is E and P were are talking about as refiners aren't making record profits. In fact refining profits are down considerably from a year ago.

I'm with Matt.