Big Oil Companies Made $200,000 Every Minute in the First Quarter - Business - The Atlantic Wire

Shell, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, BP America and Chevron Corp--the "Big Five" oil companies--reported a cumulative total earning of $36 billion in the first quarter of this year. As Huffington Post writer Erich Pica points out that's "more than $200,000 every minute." This jaw-dropping number has been accompanied by a hike in oil prices, which averaged out at about $3.98 per gallon for regular unleaded gas across the country. This is more than a dollar increase from the $2.90 gas stations were charging one year ago, The Associated Press reports.