Oil industry's exorbitant profits SOUTH AFRICANS love to complain about oil industry profits. At any dinner party or in any public drinking hole the consensus will be that the oil companies make excessive profits. "All petrol is the same really. We are just paying more for all their advertising," says one knowledgeably, raising his glass of wine/beer/brandy. "It makes me sick every time I fill up," says another." I mean, it's now R6 or R7 a litre. Those oil companies are so greedy. Just think how much money they make and it's only because we have to buy it that they can get away with it." Blah, blah, blah. Fact is the price at the pump does not all go to the oil company. More than a third of the price is made up of levies and taxes that go directly to the Government. Another chunk goes to the service station operator who -- by the way -- is NOT an oil company employee but a small businessman who makes more money selling sweets and newspapers than he does selling fuel. Only some 30 cents a litre goes to the oil company than actually makes the stuff, stores it, and ships it to the service station so you can fill up Mom's taxi every week. It is a complicated, dangerous and expensive process. The truth is the general availability of petrol in South Africa is a daily miracle, considering that it is so cheap, so clean and pretty much the same price per litre whether you buy it in Agenys or Cape Town. But that is another story.