That isn't what I said at all and your attempt to fog the issue by comparing what I said to at the pump prices is stupid.

You really don't understand how oil companies pass costs off downstream, do you?

When oil was $70/barrel, pump prices (in litres) were $1.19-$1.30. Oil is now around $30/barrel. Pump prices are at approx $ 0.80/ltr. The reasons for this are complex, but essentially, production costs are the main culprit.

So let's add a $10/bbl tax. The oil company that now adds that to the pre-production product cost. This means that end to end production costs now go up because, on paper, the refinery is paying X% more for the oil.

Of that per gallon or per litre price noted above, about 1/3 is what the oil company charges itself for post-production, to the pump delivery. The rest is state/provincial and federal taxes which differ based on where you live.

HOWEVER: the taxes at the pump are often fixed. For example, in Vancouver Canada, there is 10 cents from the Feds, 11 cents from the city, 15.7% from the province and, on top of that, a 5% GST on the total (yes, Virginia, they tax the tax!)

In US Dollars, that is $1.55 per gallon of gas that is tax.

So an oil company, seeking profit, has to charge a pump rate that allows for this while profiting on every part of the downstream process: recovery, production, transportation and sales.

Now when you add $10 per barrel, that is pre-production. The oil company shows that cost at the delivery to the refinery level. This means that their post-production (refinery) cost goes up. They then sell the oil to themselves at that new cost, which is delivered to the pump. Having already taken profit at the recovery level, added $10, taken additional profit at the refinery level, they then take profit at the pump level.

So yes, the price at the pump goes up 25% (or higher, depending on the levels of profit taken) on the pre-tax amount. Then the taxes get added on.

So the consumer doesn't see a 25% increase in price, they may only see a 10-15% increase.

Its still another 25% tax at the per barrel cost (assuming a $30 pre-production price) that is passed on to the consumer.

By the way, the franchisee or local gas station owner? They get around 3 cents per litre (about 12 cents a gallon) as their 'profit'. The rest all goes to taxes and to the oil companies.

So when I hear about any level of government adding more taxes to gasoline, I get angry. All of those taxes I already mentioned are quite enough!