The results of the world's four largest oil companies illustrate just how well the industry has fared lately. Since the end of 2003, Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Cos., BP Group PLC, Exxon Mobil Corp. and ChevronTexaco Corp. have earned a combined $97 billion, including $23.8 billion during the first three months of this year.

Although crude oil future prices retreated below the important psychological threshold of $50 per barrel yesterday, Gheit and other industry analysts expect the industry boom to continue, largely because the demand for energy is expected to grow faster than the supply.

"As far as you can look out, things look pretty rosy for (oil) refiners," said Tom Kloza, chief energy analyst for the Oil Price Information Service in Wall, N.J.

The bottom line for consumers: U.S. gasoline prices seem likely to stay above $2 per gallon through the summer — when more drivers are hitting the road for vacations and burning up more fuel.

That's unwelcome news for motorists like Henry Shin, who already has been cutting corners so he can afford to fill up his sports utility vehicle at $50 per tankful.

"It bugs me big time," said Shin, a 19-year-old college student from San Ramon. "I feel like all my money is going straight into the gasoline tank."

Gasoline prices have climbed even higher since the oil industry closed the books on its first quarter, reaching a national average of $2.28 per gallon for unleaded regular grade earlier this month, according to the daily surveys of the AAA.

The national average stood at $2.24 a gallon yesterday, a 24 percent increase from $1.81 at the same time last year, the travel association said. In California and Hawai'i, motorists are paying more than $2.50 a gallon.

Margins and markets

"It really causes people's blood pressure to rise when they see gas prices going up like they have," Kloza said.

Although the sheer numbers are large, the oil industry's profit margin — the amount of money pocketed from each sale — isn't huge.

In the first quarter, the oil and natural gas industry's profit margin averaged 8.5 percent, according to figures compiled by the American Petroleum Institute. The average profit margin for all industries so far is 9.2 percent, according to Business Week's calculations. The figure for all industries is expected to decline as more companies report first-quarter earnings during the next few weeks.

Last year, the profit margin for the oil and natural gas industry averaged 7 percent, slightly below the 7.2 percent average for all industries. Computer software and services had the highest profit margin at 15.6 percent.

"We understand consumers are concerned about gasoline prices, but those are largely a function of the marketplace," said David Fogarty, a spokesman for the Western States Petroleum Association, an industry trade group.

A sharp increase in crude oil prices is the main reason motorists are paying more at the pump.

Analysts also blame an inadequate supply of U.S. oil refineries to quench the country's ever-intensifying thirst for gasoline and heating oil, a problem that's exacerbated whenever a plant curtails production for routine maintenance or unforeseen circumstances.

A little price relief

President Bush this week suggested using closed military bases as sites on which to build more oil refineries, to help increase future production.

Even as the oil industry announced its hefty profits, this week offered motorists some hope for modest price relief at the pumps.

Oil prices have fallen during the past week after Saudi Arabia pledged to increase oil production and the government reported slower U.S. economic growth, which often foreshadows a drop in energy demand.

This week's shift convinced some industry observers that oil prices won't go much higher than they were earlier this month, when they soared past $57 per barrel.

"We have broken the back of this bullish market," said Peter Beutel, president of Cameron Hanover Inc., an oil trading advisory firm in New Canaan, Conn.

Refco Group energy analyst Marshall Steeves said he expects oil prices to range between $45 and $58 per barrel for the remainder of this year.

If oil prices stay down, gasoline prices should follow. As a rule of thumb, every $1-per-barrel drop in oil prices lowers gasoline prices by about 2.5 cents a gallon.