NEW YORK -- On Friday, ABC News presented "Over a Barrel: The Truth About Oil," anchored by Charles Gibson, on its 20/20 news magazine show. Before the show aired, a Kraft/CSP Daily News Poll asked, "Do you think ABC's report on the oil industry and gasoline prices will be objective and fair to retailers?" About 59% of the 175 respondents said no, while about 41% said yes. (Was the show fair? Please participate in today's poll, below, to let us know.)
Click here to view the show.
The show posed several questions: Many people know what a gallon of gasoline costs, but what about where the gasoline comes from? Or why the price goes up or down? Or the role refineries play? Or what difference the wars in Iraq have made?
To answer the "basic yet elusive" questions about Americans' relationship with oil, Gibson traveled across the country, observing several key links in the production chain. He visited Cushing, Okla., where most of the pipelines that crisscross the United States meet. He stopped at a loading rack in Linden, N.J., where truckers fill up with gasoline for distribution to stations across the region. He took a helicopter to a rig in the Gulf of Mexico, where robots extract crude oil buried thousands of feet beneath the ocean floor.
The show began with Don Paglia, whoruns a CITGO-owned gasoline loading rack in Linden, N.J. The surprising part about his business, he said, is that trucks headed for various gas stationsExxon, Conoco, Shell, whereverall fill up at the same rack.
"It doesn't really matter," Paglia said. "We will sell it to anyone.... It is just gas. Gas is the same no matter where you go."
So what makes Exxon Exxon? What makes Mobil Mobil? And what makes Shell Shell?
"It is just gas," Paglia repeated. "It's produced out of the earth. We refine that product. When you walk in, gas is gas."
Mark Cooper, head of research at the Consumer Federation of America, pointed out that there is a difference between brands of gasoline. And like everything connected with oil, it has to do with dollars and cents. "A lot of advertising dollars," Cooper said. "I mean, it's a classic case of spending money on TV to convince the public that there's a difference."
Oil company ads, in other words, are an expensive competition for market share.
Some brands do add small amounts of detergent additives, but all gasoline is essentially the same because federal laws do not allow much variation.
It is an industry that made $180 billion in profits last year"one gallon at a time. Our addiction has made oil the biggest business in the world," said Gibson.
The first segment went on to discuss retail gasoline profit margins and how gas stations have turned to convenience goods such as candy, snacks and fountain to stay afloat.
Click here to read moreabout "Over a Barrel."
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