Press Release
Santa Monica, CA — Tesoro, the state’s second largest refiner, reported today that 2015 was its best year ever for refining in California. Based on an analysis of the company’s annual filing, Consumer Watchdog has found that in 2015 the company made $1.9 billion in California alone- their best year ever by over a billion dollars. The company controls 27% of California’s refining capacity. Tesoro made $423 million in California in the fourth quarter of 2015.
Press Release
Santa Monica, CA — Chevron’s US refining profits soared to their highest ever in 2015, thanks to California drivers who paid inflated prices for gasoline, Consumer Watchdog said today.
Press Release
Santa Monica, CA — Valero, California’s fourth largest oil refiner, reported $852 million in profits from oil refining in California in 2015, blowing past prior years’ profits by treating drivers who buy California gasoline as cash cows, Consumer Watchdog said today.
Press Release
Sacramento, CA — Consumer Watchdog today revealed to a state oversight panel new tactics by which California oil refiners had their most profitable years ever and state drivers paid more at the pump than ever before compared to US drivers.
Press Release
Santa Monica, CA – The three major refiners that provide detailed profit information reported their best ever year to date from oil refining in California. Each company at least tripled their average historical profits in the third quarter, according to Consumer Watchdog’s analysis released today.
Press Release
Santa Monica, CA — Chevron today reported its highest U.S. refining profits for the first nine months of the year—a whopping $2.6 billion as compared to $1.7 billion for the same period last year. Since 54 percent of the company’s refining takes place in California, California drivers paid the price, Consumer Watchdog said today.
Press Release
Santa Monica, CA – The two California refiners that break out California-specific profits today reported their most lucrative California quarters ever. Tesoro’s & Valero’s quarterly reports for July through September help explain why Californians have paid a dollar per gallon over the US average during 2015, Consumer Watchdog said today. The company more than tripled its per barrel profits.
Press Release
Santa Monica, CA – Valero reported $294 million in second quarter California profits, more than ten times higher than the same quarter last year when the Texas refiner made $24 million. The most staggering increase came in per barrel profits. Last year the company made just 99 cents per barrel in California. This year that number reached $11.23 per barrel.
Press Release
Santa Monica, CA — Monday night’s explosion and hours-long fire at Chevron’s large oil refinery in Richmond, Ca., released toxic chemicals including sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide in unknown amounts, sending hundreds of local residents to local hospitals with breathing and eye complaints. Yet the state agency with the most expertise in regulating such toxins, the Department of Toxic Substances Control, claims it has little to no oversight of dangerous substances produced in refinery accidents, said Consumer Watchdog.
News Clipping
Activist Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog in Santa Monica, calls it capitulation. “After you get bonked on the head by $4 and $5 gasoline enough times, maybe it doesn’t hurt as much,” Court said.
News Clipping
“There’s an old saying in [the] gasoline [industry],” Judy Dugan, research director for Consumer Watchdog in Santa Monica, Calif., said Monday. “Prices go up like a rocket and down like a feather. There is a higher disconnect between the actual price of oil and the price of gasoline.” Gasoline prices have been viewed as the “last bastion of competition,” Dugan said, “but in this case that appears to have failed.” Still, gasoline prices in the state vary significantly.
News Clipping
California-based nonprofit, Consumer Watchdog, recently provided a clue to where the “missing” gasoline may have gone. Recently, Judy Dugan, a petroleum market commentator for Consumer Watchdog, noted that the shares of oil refiners jumped in price last month “on bets that Japan would soon have to import a lot more heating oil and gasoline because of refinery fires and quake/ tsunami damage.”
Consumer Watchdog’s Jamie Court discusses why the spike in gas prices – especially in California – has nothing to do with civil unrest, and everything to do with profiteering.
