Comments on: Meanwhile Big Oil Makes $10 Million an Hour… http://priceofoil.org/2008/10/27/meanwhile-big-oil-makes-10-million-an-hour%e2%80%a6/ Oil Change International campaigns to expose the true costs of oil and facilitate the coming transition towards clean energy. We are dedicated to identifying and overcoming political barriers to that transition. Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:43:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7.1 hourly 1 By: J W http://priceofoil.org/2008/10/27/meanwhile-big-oil-makes-10-million-an-hour%e2%80%a6/comment-page-1/#comment-668144 J W Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:09:42 +0000 http://priceofoil.org/?p=3211#comment-668144 Please try a bit harder to promote financial literacy. Shell has assets of approx $270 billion. So yes, the profits that flow from an investment of this size will also be large in absolute terms. A better measure than the silly $'s per hour is return on invested capital, i.e., how much do they return for every dollar invested. Platt's says about 23% ROIC, which is a good number, but not obscene, particularly given the extreme risks in the business (like your product's price being cut by more than half in 6 months--let's see what their ROIC is in a couple of quarters, certainly much lower). Please try a bit harder to promote financial literacy.

Shell has assets of approx $270 billion. So yes, the profits that flow from an investment of this size will also be large in absolute terms.

A better measure than the silly $’s per hour is return on invested capital, i.e., how much do they return for every dollar invested. Platt’s says about 23% ROIC, which is a good number, but not obscene, particularly given the extreme risks in the business (like your product’s price being cut by more than half in 6 months–let’s see what their ROIC is in a couple of quarters, certainly much lower).

]]>