...but "the costs have gone through the roof" is entirely dimensionless. What is the quantitative impact of all the problems and mismanagement that you describe? Doubling the price of a barrel of oil in just a few short years represents trillions of dollars, and I'm having trouble translating what are essentially marginal cost factors into the quite substantive 100% price increase.

It's only one factor in your list, but it's not legitimate to count windfall profit taxes as an operating expense. The fact that there are such taxes imposed on profits tells you that the profit is not a fixed 10% as Tom stoutly maintains.

Though I don't dispute your qualitative assessment of the situation, it's not enough to change my belief, and that of many others, that demand and speculation on futures are responsible for the majority of the increase in the cost of oil. That being the case, profits cannot possibly be fixed, and must be fluctuating as a percentage of sale price. It's mathematically impossible for it to be any other way.