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The next time you’re gritting your teeth as you fill your tank with $4 gas, here’s something to consider: Your pain is their gain.
The last of the Big Five oil companies announced first-quarter earnings Friday, so the totals are in. Between the five of them, ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips made $34 billion in profits in the first three months of 2011—up 42 percent from a year ago.
That’s about $110 for every man, woman, and child in the United States—in just three months. Read more.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch)—Exxon Mobil Corp. will lead a strong first-quarter earnings season for energy companies this week, with the largest U.S.-based oil and gas producer’s balance sheet fueled by $100-a-barrel oil.

The increase in Big Oil’s bottom line comes despite lower production forecasts in the face of supply disruptions in Libya and elsewhere, as well as output limits based on contractual agreements between oil companies and state-run enterprises that own overseas oil and gas fields. Read more.

A dollar plumbing three-year lows is hitting Americans squarely in the gas tank, and one economist thinks it could drive prices as high as $6 a gallon or more by summertime under the right conditions.

With the greenback coming under increased pressure from Federal Reserve policies and investor appetite for more risk, there seems little direction but up for commodity prices, in particular energy and metals. Weakness in the US currency feeds upward pressure on commodities, which are priced in dollars and thus come at a discount on the foreign markets. One result has been a surge higher in gasoline prices to nearly $4 a gallon before the summer driving season even starts, a trend that economists say will be aggravated as demand increases and the summer storm season threatens to disrupt oil supplies. Read more.

In some parts of the country, gasoline prices have hit $4 a gallon. The U.S. Energy Department estimates gas prices nationally will average $3.86 per gallon through the summer. That’s a big increase — up nearly 40 percent compared with last year. So what does that mean for the economy?

Economists are trying to figure out how much rising gasoline prices will hurt consumer confidence and consumer spending. Read more.

Oil prices topped $107 a barrel Friday, April 1, 2011 after a better-than-forecast U.S. jobs report for March, while concerns over anti-government forces in Libya added to uncertainty about oil supplies.  A close around these levels would be the highest since late September 2008.

Gas prices skyrocketed during the entire month of March 2011. The current average for a gallon of unleaded regular gas is $3.61. One month ago, gas prices were at $3.38. Gas prices have risen 23 cents in the last month, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express as of April 1, 2011. Read more.