UN-Privativatise energy companies

tberry6686

MillicentBystander wrote: »

What do their parent company they make on the excavation/wholesale side?

Totally and utterly irrelevant. The wholesale market dictates the price of gas, coal, uranium fuel rods and oil not domestic gas and electricity suppliers.

The domestic supply companies actually make around 5% profit, care to show me another industry with this low a profit margin.

MillicentBystander

tberry6686 wrote: »

Totally and utterly irrelevant. The wholesale market dictates the price of gas, coal, uranium fuel rods and oil not domestic gas and electricity suppliers.

The domestic supply companies actually make around 5% profit, care to show me another industry with this low a profit margin.

It can only be irrelevant to an industry shill who is toeing the party line and sticking to the 5% profit spin. Fact is, the vast majority of the Big 6 are also WHOLESALERS of the products they sell and not only sell to the other Big 6 companies but also to themselves. And make far higher than 5% profits doing so. But these profits are far easier to hide so consequently don't attract the headlines that the retail arm profits do. It's not rocket science to see where the head honchoos of the Big 6 decide to allocate their REAL profits.

Fitzpatrick, head of a small supplier which has NO in-house wholesale arm, said before the select committee that the highest they paid on the open wholesale market was back in May 2011. Almost 2.5 YEARS AGO. Explain that one (the highly paid execs of the Big 6 who shared the platform with him uttered not one dissenting word about his claim on the day).

tberry6686

MillicentBystander wrote: »

It can only be irrelevant to an industry shill who is toeing the party line and sticking to the 5% profit spin. Fact is, the vast majority of the Big 6 are also WHOLESALERS of the products they sell and not only sell to the other Big 6 companies but also to themselves. And make far higher than 5% profits doing so. But these profits are far easier to hide so consequently don't attract the headlines that the retail arm profits do. It's not rocket science to see where the head honchoos of the Big 6 decide to allocate their REAL profits.

Fitzpatrick, head of a small supplier which has NO in-house wholesale arm, said before the select committee that the highest they paid on the open wholesale market was back in May 2011. Almost 2.5 YEARS AGO. Explain that one (the highly paid execs of the Big 6 who shared the platform with him uttered not one dissenting word about his claim on the day).

I asume that this is aimed at me but I have no connection with the energy supply companies at all so not sure how I can be an industry shill.

I havent said the wholesale market prices had gone up, but everything else has.

There are good reasons that the upstream profit margins are high, mainly due to risk limited supplies.

ollski

MillicentBystander wrote: »

And make far higher than 5% profits doing so. But these profits are far easier to hide so consequently don't attract the headlines that the retail arm profits do.

It's not so much they are easier to hide, it is trade sensitive information and therefore nobody knows what it is and comments like above are based on absolutely no knowledge at all. We all seem to be sucking up the propoganda from all sides.

MillicentBystander

ollski wrote: »

It's not so much they are easier to hide, it is trade sensitive information and therefore nobody knows what it is and comments like above are based on absolutely no knowledge at all. We all seem to be sucking up the propoganda from all sides.

Trade sensitive = easier to hide. It's an excuse, that's all. Did you watch all the live coverage of the Commons Select Committee where the profits generated at the Big 6's excavation/wholesaling arm was raised by one of the MPs on the panel?

ollski

Trade sensetive = secret. Common business practice across all companies.
You can't say 'And make far higher than 5% profits doing so' when there are no public figures.

tberry6686

the profits made from producing gas are a lot more than 5%, however the risks are much greater than domestic supply and the costs of finding and developing gas fields are very high. An exploration well in the north sea will cost at least £20m to drill (some have cost over £200m) with a success rate of around 1 in 3. If the profit margin on producing fields was 5% then gas exploration in the north sea would be finished as it would be high risk for no real return.

ollski

tberry6686 wrote: »

the profits made from producing gas are a lot more than 5%

But what are they?, I don't mind twisting and discussing statistics until the cows come home but it gets tricky when we try discussing a statistic which nobody knows.

tberry6686

I did see actual numbers from Centrica recently but so far have been unable to re locate them. They were on Centrica's website. They only give the costs and profit - no percentages but is an easy calculation.